Fisheries and aqua-culture based industries have been badly hit due to lack of government encouragement in the district. It may be mentioned that Srikakulam has 145 km length coastal belt in 11 mandals and rich source for sea foods. In the district, around 50,000 families depend on fishing and another 30,000 families depend on the fisheries industry indirectly. At present, every month Rs 70 crore worth business on fishing is going on and about Rs 800 crore annual businesas is available across the district on fishing.There is a scope for better improvement if the government provides jetties along the coast to protect boats and nets. During cyclones fishermen are facing difficulties in carrying out their boats away from the coast. In Srikakulam, they are having work only for three to four months in a year. As a result, migrations to other states are high every year. Indiscriminate sand mining on the sea coast in Gara, Srikakulam rural and other mandals is posing a major threat to fishing. Chemical, pesticide, bio-hatcheries pollution along the coast is leading to massive scale of loss of fish varieties in the sea. The government is unable to control these issues and protect the interests of fishermen. Good salt water resources are available along the coast to cultivate prawn and fish through ponds, but due to lack of government support, cultivation is confined only to 10,000 acres in four mandals and it is not spreading to other coastal mandals. Speaking to the media here on Sunday, District Fishermen Union president M Rama Rao and general secretaries M Polisu and M Gurumurthy said that the construction of jetties and fishing harbours have remained only on paper for the last several years. Modern boats and nets were not supplied properly to fishermen, they lamented. They said that they were proposing jetties at Kalingapatnam, Rallapeta, Budagatlapalem and Manchineellapeta and the government has to give its nod. When contacted, Deputy Director (DD) for Fisheries Department, VV Krishnamurthy said that the government would provide nets and boats to eligible fishermen.