Fishermen in Türkiye's Black Sea region are picking up the pace to prepare for the upcoming fishing season.
Hoping for a fruitful season, they continue maintenance work on nets and boats as the end of the fishing ban nears its end.
The general ban on fishing started on April 15 and will end on Sept. 1.
The Black Sea fishermen also accelerated their final preparations for the new fishing season.
They are repairing nets, repainting the lower parts of the boats, balancing and polishing the propellers, as well as the final inspection of the navigation devices.
The fishermen in Trabzon, who continue their boat maintenance and count the days for the end of the fishing ban, hope for a fruitful season this year.
Fisherman İsmail Akkan said they are nearing the end of the preparations.
"We weave our nets at home in the evenings. In the daytime, we come to the port and do the maintenance and repair work of the boat. We are preparing our boat for the season. We paint, we maintain devices. We are very hopeful for the season this year. Let's see what the sea brings us," he said.
Yunus Özçelik, another local fisherman, said they have also completed their preparations.
"We have completed the maintenance of our boat. We repainted it. We fixed our nets. Equipment maintenance has also been done. The crew is ready for the new season."
"We are just waiting for the fishing ban to be lifted. There seems to be fish in the sea. We are hopeful for this season, but our only problem is that the costs have increased. Fuel prices have also increased a lot."
"Hopefully the season will go better than we expected."
Fisherman Mustafa Çakır, who has also repaired his worn-out nets, said: "The preparations are complete. All that's left is the lifting of the fishing ban."
"The only point that makes me think is that the fuel price has increased a lot compared to the previous years. Costs have doubled, even tripled. The sea needs to be very generous to us so that we can cover our costs. We have hope, the rest is God's will," he said.
