"It needs to be understood that, with the exception of the Thoothoor fishermen, India does not have the skill to tap the resources beyond the continental shelf, unlike the Sri Lankans"- according to V.Vivekanandan, Chief Executive of South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS).

"The only fleet that can be said to be specialized in shark fishing is the mechanized vessel fleet of the Thoothoor area in Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. Around 500 to 600 mechanized vessels (32-45 ft long) use long-lines and go shark fishing all over the west coast of India, from Kanyakumari to Okha in Gujarat. This fleet, employing around 6,000 fishermen, came up in the late 1980s and is perhaps India’s only genuinely deep-sea fleet. Though a part of the fleet has diver-sified to use large-mesh drift-nets for seer and hand-lines for perches, shark fishing remains the most important source of income. Though this fleet started with bottom longlining for shark on the continental shelf, especially between 100 m and 300 m depth, some of the units now fish with pelagic lines in the open ocean, where the depth is more than 1,000 m and where pelagic sharks are plentiful", according to V.Vivekanandan, Chief Executive of South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS).

THE BAN ON SHARK FISHING : An Environment Ministry notification on July 11 has banned fishing of shark and ray, sea horses and giant grouper. The ban is a setback for the development of deep-sea fishing in India. Tuna and pelagic shark are the main offshore resources not exploited by Indian vessels, except to a limited extent by the Thoothoor fishermen. This ban itself came to light some time in September, when the Coast Guard started harassing the fishermen of Thoothoor in Tamil Nadu, who have the only fleet in India dedicated to shark fishing. It was the Coast Guard that informed the fishermen about the ban and not the State fisheries departments. And this ban is withdrew by the government of India after a strong oppose from the Fishermen organisations.

In a landmark initiative on 17 February 2002, Mr. V Vivekanandan, Chief Executive, SIFFS (South Indian Federation of Fishermen Societies), Thiruvananthapuram, made an unprecedented offer to CMFRI, on behalf of the Thoothoor shark fishers, the only specialized shark fishing group in India with 500–600 mechanized vessels, employing approximately 6000 fishermen. He said that the fishermen would take the CMFRI scientists in their boats, and help them collect species-wise data on shark landings in Indian waters.

"Since early 1970s, Football is the major game in thoothoor area", said Mr.Antony Xavier, TNSTC driver and also an old star player of Thoothoor.

According to Kumudam Reporter, dated 23 June 2002, "This is a land of football players in India". They also wrote as,"The players from Thoothoor, Chinnathurai, E.P thurai, Poothurai and Erayumanthurai are now playing for various leading football teams in India like BSF, Santhosh trophy team, ICF, Chennai-Nethaji team, University level teams, Clubs from West Bengal and all".

Nethaji Sports Club of Thoothoor is the only source for the football players of these villages. Nethaji Sports club is a Sports division of Nethaji Library Thoothoor (NLT). NLT is participating in most of the south India level tournaments and has won many trophies. Since 1991, NLT is conducting an annual foot-ball tournament with leading teams from India. National football contributors like ICF, Indian Bank, Customs, South Railway team and other leading clubs are participating in this. Since 2004, foreign teams are also participating in this tournament. Managers and coachs of leading teams take this tournament as an opportunity to hire talended players for their team. Thus playing with NLT is a winning experience.

NLT secretary, Mr. Maria Vijayan, said "we were able to achieve this with enough support from the people of Thoothoor". He also pointed out that if we are provided with a good ground and a talended coach, definetly our land will generate best players for our country.