Fishermen working the Kiran-kulam Dharmapuram stretch of the Batticaloa coast landed a fish weighing about 200 kilograms on Sunday evening, and sold it for around Rs 252,000.
Local fishermen said the catch was welcome at a difficult moment, with daily fishing made challenging by poor weather, Hiru News reported on Monday.
The price tells the better story
The species is known locally as koppara maaluwa (කොප්පරා මාළුවා). Hiru does not identify it by scientific or English common name, and this article does not assign one.
What the filing does give is a market in retreat. A kilo of koppara fish normally sells for around Rs 2,500, the fishermen said. A recent surge in catch volumes has pushed that down to roughly Rs 1,400 a kilo.
The sale price bears this out. At Rs 252,000 for about 200 kilograms, the fish fetched roughly Rs 1,260 a kilo — slightly under even the depressed going rate. At the normal price it would have been worth close to Rs 500,000.
So a catch that reads as a windfall was worth about half what the same fish would have brought in an ordinary week. Both conditions the fishermen describe — weather disrupting daily work, and a glut pulling down the price of what does come in — are pressing at once.
Not reported
The filing does not name the fishermen or the boat, give an exact weight, or say who bought the fish. It does not explain what has driven the surge in catch volumes, how long the lower price has held, or whether the fall is confined to this species or to the Batticaloa market.