arketing - are protected. In addition, future safety at sea and disater preparedness measures need to be institututed. The focus on fisherfolk provides opportunities to improve their future.
On this page are a selected number of papers, press releases, links and information about the disaster, and selected data and information on damage and casualties and assessments of needs for reconstruction. These emphasise the need for improving the quality of aid for the long-term reconstruction effort that must focus on restoring the means of livelihoods to devastated fisherfolk communities....
...and if you want to contribute directly, you can donate on-line to Via Campesina, the global farmers movement, that is raising funds that will be provided directly for post tsunami reconstruction through fisherfolk and their organisations.
Tsunami and Fisherfolk - UK NGOs call for action by UK government and EU to work through the organisations of fisherfolk: and no dumping of decommissioned EU fishing boats on tsunami affected communities. Part of...:
"Tsunami, Mangroves and the Market Economy" by Devinder Sharma provides an analysis of the increased negative impact of the tsunami on fisherfolk due to the impostion of neoliberal policies in India (10 Jan 2005)
The article by John Kurien, Centre of Development Studies, "Tsunamis and a Secure Future for Fishing Communities" provides an agenda for action post tsunami that will give hope to fisherfolk in the region. (Updated 10 Jan 2005).
Guardian Newspaper article "Corrupted defence" by Mari Marcel Thekaekara, shows how the tsunami crisis facing fisherfolk in Tamil Nadu is magnified by violations of coastal regulations and beachside development - and the need to work through the organisations of fisherfolk (5 Jan 2005)
Pesticide Action Network - Asia/Pacific: please help support fisherfolk and peasant communities in their own relief and rehabilitation from the Tsunami disaster. Links to reports of reconstruction needs for fisherfolk communities in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. (7 Jan 2005)
The South Indian Federation of Fishermen's Societies (SIFFS) provides information about the impact, relief and reconstruction efforts post tsunami directly from the most affected communities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, India.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) summarises damage across the region and the reconstruction needs of the millions of farmers and fisherfolk in coastal areas who have been affected by the tsunami disaster.
Natural disasters are not a rare occurrence along the coastal tract of Asia. We always have a tidal wave here, a cyclone there, or a typhoon brewing somewhere. Despite the warnings beamed over early warning systems, all these acts of nature result in the loss of life and property. We have become immune to such media reports of nature's fury. Most often they are distant events. As long as we are not the affected party, these coastal natural disasters come and go. There is the momentary sense of pity; sometimes an effort at reaching out to the anonymous victims. Then our lives move on.
The post-Christmas tsunami seems to have changed all this. This nameless, stealthy killer came in broad daylight, totally unannounced. Those who were fishing at sea did not perceive its presence. Those on land had no living experience of such wave behaviour and fury. It devastated the coastal communities of several countries all at once. It has traumatized those for whom Mother Sea was a source of life and sustenance. The adage that the oceans unite us and land mass divides us became undisputedly true -- except that this was not unity in life, but rather, in death and destruction.
A tsunami is a silent sub-surface wave train formed as a result of tremendous release of energy in the ocean floor due to an earthquake or volcanic eruption. Tsunami waves travel in the ocean at great speeds akin to that of a jet airliner. There is little dissipation of energy even after covering long distances. As tsunami waves reach the shallower water near the shore, friction with the 