There was More of ‘Selling’ Than ‘Seeing’ at Aqua Aquaria India 2017

There was More of ‘Selling’ Than ‘Seeing’ at Aqua Aquaria India 2017

The fourth edition of Aqua Aquaria India (AAI), one of the largest exposition of its kind in Asia at Nehru Maidan-Mangaluru had more ‘Stalls” than ” Fishes” ? Ask anyone who had visited this fish exhibition, about 90% will say “It was waste of Money and Time”. And for that matter, Ramesh Shetty said, ” Being an hotelier, I see more variety of fishes at the Central Fish Market when I go every day to buy fish for my restaurant, than here?”.

Mangaluru: The organizers had a different intention while hosting this fish exhibition, while the public had a different expectation when they planned to patronize the exhibition. When I decided to visit the Aqua Aquaria on Monday evening, my friend said that I should think twice before I go there, because it weas simply waste of money and time. But for curiosity sake, I still patronized the exhibition. And just like what my friend said, he was right- “It was waste of Time, and Money?’.

For that matter, if you go to Fisheries College-Yekkur, You can see bunch of different varieties of Fish- and for Free. Also if you visit the lobby of Hotel Prestige, you can see a bunch of different kind of fishes in the a huge aquarium for Free? Or if you visit one of the fish and pet shops in the city, you could also see bunch of different kinds of fish for Free? And finally, my friend having six huge Aquariums at home, also has a variety of fishes- and that too you can view them for Free. But on the other hand, when wide publicity was given by the media pertaining to the Aqua Aquaria India exhibition show, citizens thought they would get a chance to see a variety of fishes- but all in vain. Instead of spending my Rs 100 on the entrance ticket to see this exhibition, I could have had a “Bangude masala fry” at Narayan’s Hotel- Bunder or at Giri Manja’s Hotel- Car street??

It was indeed nice to have The fourth edition of Aqua Aquaria India(AAI), one of the largest exposition of its kind in Asia at Nehru Maidan, which started since Sunday. The 3-day biennial event deliberated on measures to promote ornamental fishery and recent advances in aquaculture. Recent advances in sustainable aquaculture and ornamental fishery as a money-spinning export industry dominated the proceedings of the fourth edition, a showpiece event of Asia’s marine sector. “Diversification in sustainable aquaculture” was the focal theme of the exposition organized by the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), a nodal agency of the union ministry of commerce and industry dealing with promotion of marine products export and allied activities.

Minister for fisheries, sports and youth empowerment Pramod Madhwaraj had inaugurated the event, while MP Nalin Kumar Kateel deliverd a keynote address, along with a bevy of other politicians and VIPs and those in Fishing Industry. This exhibition offered a platform for all stakeholders to meet, deliberate on various aspects of aquaculture and ornamental fish for striking business deals and to have an update on latest developments in the field- but for the general public and common man, the exhibition was simply boring. As publicized before the commencement of the exhibition, the event proposed to have 350 stalls and 20,000 delegates from India and abroad. Farmers, entrepreneurs from all areas of aquaculture and aquariculture sectors would register as exhibitors and delegates. Importers and buyers from several countries were expected to participate in the exhibition. But a visit to the exhibition, one could see not more than hundred stalls etc.

Even Aqua Aquaria India 2017 offered an excellent platform for aquaculture farmers and ornamental fish breeders to gather latest knowledge in farming practices and acquire practical information, and students in Fisheries field were also allowed for the exhibition and technical sessions at a very concessional rate, for many others the exhibition didn’t make them happy. There were more stalls than aquarium with fishes- the people expected to see more fishes than stalls promoting their fishing products and fish foods etc etc. Some enthusiasts were busy collecting brochures, pamphlets, promo materials on fishing products and for various endeavours in fisheries- since they were for free.

A few visitors were seeing taking selfies with the live crabs and with a few variety of ornamental fish. Other few kind of fish on display were Tilapia, Asian Sea bass, Mangrove Mud Crab, Cobia, Prwans/shrimps and few other diversified ornamental fish. Fish product manufacturing units, a bunch of them in numbers were present out numbering the aquariums. Although the highlight of the show was the “Make In India” Lion brilliantly transformed, that also didn’t satisfy the visitors- they wanted more fishes to see than visit the stalls, which they were not much interested in. Just because they were already inside the air-conditioned huge tent ( built at a enormous cost in few lakhs), people patronized the food counters namely ” Machali Pattanam” which had aromatic flavours of fish items, while other stalls had tempting fish recipes and prawn biriyani. Some of them enjoyed lip-smacking, mouthwatering dishes, other than that they were not happy with the display of live fishes. They expected much more and better variety of fishes.

Shanthi Shenoy speaking to Team Mangalorean said, ” My eight year old daughter wanted me to bring her to the exhibition since she was anxiously waiting to see variety of fishes. But she was totally disappointed when she found out that only a few variety of fish were on display”. Anthony Pinto said, ” I was hoping to see more fishes than wasting my time visiting the stalls, which were not of my interest. We were totally duped by the vast publicity given prior to to the beginning of the show”. Ramesh Shetty said, ” Being a hotelier, I see more variety of fishes at the Central Fish Market when I go everyday to buy fish for my restaurant, than here?”. I fully agree with these citizens, because I too feel the same- because there were more stalls promoting and trying to sell their products than what people really wanted to see – FISHES? Oh well! Finally, while so much money was spent on the huge tent fully air-conditioned, the organizers could have arranged more aquariums with variety of fishes- which would have been worth the time visiting and worth the money spent?

And now let’s talk about PM Narendra Modi’s “Swachh Bharath Abhiyan”? Being this exhibition which is undertaken by Government of India along with other fishing sectors, they should have thought of keeping the surroundings clean. Just look at the pictures in this report, the way the garbage was dumped at a corner on the open maidan- there were stray dogs and crows feeding on the left over sea food delicacies. How can a govt. of India sector can abuse Swachh Bharath is such a filthy way? It’s true that workers of MCC will clean up the mess, but it is always better to have such garbage stored in a proper way than discard all over. I could see only one blue dustbin/garbage bin kept on the entire ground, and hardly anyone had used it (see he picture). Imagine having one garbage bin for such a huge crowd. PM Modi’s “Swachh Bharath” totally shattered by the organizers, one of them being the Govt. of India sector? What more can we expect? Period!