Ghol (protonibea diacanthus)
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Commercial value
As in 2021
Sandhya Nair, Sep 2, 2021: The Times of India
From: Sandhya Nair, Sep 2, 2021: The Times of India
From: Sandhya Nair, Sep 2, 2021: The Times of India
From: Sandhya Nair, Sep 2, 2021: The Times of India
From: Sandhya Nair, Sep 2, 2021: The Times of India
On the morning of August 28, fisherman Chandrakant Tare set sail on his boat from the Mumbai-Palghar coast. This was Tare’s first trip back to the sea after the annual month-long fishing ban ended on August 15. As his boat reached Wadhwan, around 25 nautical miles off the Palghar coast, he and his crew of ten men laid out their nets in the water and waited in anticipation. However, what happened next was beyond their wildest expectations.
Suddenly, a school of fish, big and small, were trapped in the net. Tare and the workers quickly started pulling the catch towards the boat, hoping that the bigger fish would not damage the net and escape.
As they pulled the fish into the boat, Tare realised that, inadvertently, he had struck gold. For in his net, was one of the most commercially valuable fish found in this part of the world - the Ghol.
A blackspotted croaker fish, native to the Indian and Pacific Ocean, the Ghol is a delicacy prized in east Asia for the medicinal properties of its internal organs.
Dubbed “the fish with a heart of gold”, the Ghol skin is a great source of high-quality collagen, used in the manufacturing of functional food and a lot of cosmetic products as well.
It is considered a great substitute for porcine and bovine gelatin and its fins are used by pharmaceutical companies to manufacture soluble stitches.
The value of the fish depends on the gender - a female may cost Rs 3,000 a kg, while a male can go upto Rs 5,000 a kg.
As Tare headed back to the coast with his prized catch, news of his incredible haul of 157 Ghol fish spread like wildfire. Within hours of arriving on the shores of Murbhe in Palghar, as a group of men sat down to clean the fish and separate its organs, traders lined up for the auction. The video of the prized catch had already been circulated across fishing villages and Tare was dubbed a crorepati.
When the auction ended, the bladder ( bhot in Marathi) and the other internal organs of this high grade croaker fish had fetched Tare a whopping Rs 1.33 crore.
Bernard D'mello, a fishing union leader said that such a catch is sheer luck. “The bigger the size of the Ghol, the more the money,” said D’Mello.
This is not the first instance of this valuable species earning fishermen a fortune. In August, 2018, two fishermen brothers from Palghar had netted a single Ghol fish that fetched them Rs 5.5 lakhs in an auction. In May of the same year, a fisherman from Utan, Bhayander struck gold when he netted a Ghol fish which fetched him Rs 5 lakhs.
Tare on his part is treading cautiously after making a killing with his catch. He said that he will use the money he has earned to tide over his financial troubles. Both graphics good
