By IANS
Chennai : A UN-supported workshop on fishing in Tamil Nadu’s over-exploited 1,000-km coastline found that nearly a quarter of the trawler fishermen of the Palk Bay are ready to take up alternative work.
Participants, including government officials, international experts, NGOs and fishing community leaders, voiced concern that “inefficient and destructive fishing is on the rise” and said there was urgent need for regulations.
There are approximately 2,260 mechanised trawlers out of about 14,000 fishing crafts in Palk Bay, off the Rameswaram coast. The rest are mainly motorised or non-motorised country crafts or FRP boats.
The stakeholders pointed out that the weak implementation of the marine fishing regulation act had resulted in over-fishing on the coast. They urged the government and the community to put in place restrictions on entry of new fishing vessels in the already overcrowded waters, and go for more controlled fishing.
Experts at the two-day workshop also suggested immediate reduction of the east coast trawler fishing fleet and diversification-like venturing into more of tuna fishing.
“Out of above 2,000 trawlers in the Palk Bay, the efficiency is only 75 percent”, said Jyothis Satyapalan of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS).
“If the catch from Sri Lankan waters is cut due to strict border regulation, the efficiency comes down further”, he pointed out.
“This means, the fleet has to be reduced to optimise efficiency of fishing in the Palk Bay”, he explained, mooting the suggestion that this should at least be tried out on an experimental basis in the Palk Bay.
Satyapalan’s study team suggested a “buy back” scheme to the government, which was favoured by the fishing community too. Experts and government representatives suggested that the idea be tested out in the Palk Bay area first “while studying the implications and policy options”.
The fishermen, on the other hand, asked for a system in place to stop entry of new vessels in the area and sought “sufficient compensation” in order for them to come out of existing debts.
Satyapalan’s study also revealed that 23 percent of boat owners are ready get out of fisheries sector, provided they are compensated.
Even more than compensation, they expressed the need for government jobs and other kind of employment for the future generations.
Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute expert S. Srinath explained how the fish catch in Tamil Nadu was coming down in spite of the increase in the fishing efforts, emphasising the need for regulation.
The workshop also discussed the possibility of diversifying into deep-sea tuna fish catching, in order to decongest the coastal fishing.
“With appropriate technology and financial support there is high potential for many existing fishing vessels to take to deep sea fishing”, C.M. Muralidharan, the fisheries coordinator of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, told IANS.