Mira-Bhayandar: Fishermen net Stingray weighing over 100 kg in small rowboat in Uttan

Mira-Bhayandar: Two brothers from the Bhatebunder in Uttan netted a giant stingray fish (locally known as pakat-maasa) while inshore fishing in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday.

Sunil and Raju Patil had ventured on their fishing voyage in their small engineless oar-powered fibre boat and cast their net like normal days. A few hours later, they noticed the stingray that had gotten entangled in the net. After tediously labouring the oars, the duo managed to bring their small boat loaded with the catch to the shores of Bhatebunder.

Huge fish will fetch between Rs 7000 to 10,000

The stingray, weighing more than 100 kg, will fetch between Rs 7,000-10,000. Sunil and Raju own only one fiber boat and venture out for inshore fishing to net crabs, lobsters and other varieties of fish found close to the shores. It was a lucky day as their surprise catch would give them some extra income.

Unlike offshore fishing, which involves large fishing vessels with eight to ten fishermen on board venturing far and wide for week-long voyages, inshore fishing happens closer to shore, in smaller vessels withoutengines with a maximum of two people on board. This allows the inshore fishermen to work by daylight and return to shore at night to land their catch.

There are just a handful of fishermen in the coastal areas of Uttan who venture on an inshore fishing voyage in their oar-powered manual boats.