Like several other sectors in the state, fishing too faces acute labour crunch and many boat owners in Kerala find it difficult to get labourers. While there is an attrition from the labour force as the senior fishers retire, very few young men from the state find fishing as an attractive means of livelihood. A combined outcome of this is a diminished native labour force. The shortage of labour is addressed by engaging workers from other states.Traditional fishers from five Indian states were found engaged in marine fishing from the Kerala coast during 2017. Fisher folk from Sundarbans region in West Bengal, Puri, Khorda, Cuttack and Baleswar districts on the Odisha coast, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts in coastal Andhra Pradesh, Udupi district in Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, Cuddalore, Thoothukkudy and Ramanathapuram districts in Tamil Nadu work in boats that operate from the Kerala coast.
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