Effluents push fish off city coast Mumbai's famed local seafood cuisine seems to be losing some of its distinctive flavour with fishes like Pomfrets, Bombay Duck, Lobsters, Prawns and Mackerels slowly disappearing into obscurity. Old timers reminiscence about how these fishes used to rule the coastline not too long ago. The Bombay duck, popularly known as 'bombil', once ruled the platter of food lovers across the city; its now a rarity. Reason? The marine ecology is getting degraded due to the ever-increasing marine pollution, increase in the number of oilrigs and disappearing mangroves. With the Mumbai coastline facing a major threat from pollution, most of the famous species along the Mumbai coastline have disappeared. Four years ago, an estimated three to four lakh metric tonnes of fish were caught along the Mumbai coastline. This number has shockingly decreased to one lakh metric tone this year. Speaking to FPJ, the chairman of All Maharashtra Fishermen Action Forum Damodar Tandel said, "The uncontrollable pollution across the Mumbai coastline has left most of the fishermen jobless, as the pollution has made around 75 per cent of the fishing boats in Mumbai shut down their work." Sea areas near Sewri, Trombay and Gorai are faced with chemical deposition from the factories. This sea has been reclaimed to about four kilometers in this area, thereby affecting the sea level and the fish population. The combination of reclamation and pollution is responsible for the death of many fish species found here. According to Tandel, inaction on the part of the government with regards to chemicals being deposited along the coast and the depleting mangrove cover for the reduction in the number of fishes. "Mangroves are necessary for sustenance of the fishes. Fishes lay their eggs in the mangroves during their initial months and then enter the sea. With mangroves disappearing, it is not possible for big fish to lay their eggs near mangroves and this has decreased the population of fishes," he says. Also, many oilrigs built in the sea have adversely affected the sea life. There are about 750 to 800 oilrigs that have created problems in the fishing for fishermen. No fishing is allowed in the proximity of three kilometers near oilrigs. This has limited the fishing portion for the fishermen.