ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Ban on trawling during monsoon raises hackles

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The Kerala government last week imposed a 45-day ban on trawling in the state waters by mechanised fishing boats, with effect from June 15. The government has also constituted a committee to study the impact of the ban being imposed during monsoon season from 1989 onwards.

The committee, headed by Dr N Balakrishnan Nair, will go into the effect of the ban on marine resources and conservation.

Announcing this after a meeting of the state cabinet, Chief Minister E K Nayanar said the committee has been asked to submit its reports within the next six months.

The ban, he said, was being imposed following a demand from traditional fishermen who felt that mechanised trawling during monsoon affected the breeding of several fish species. The ban, regularly being imposed since 1989, has been a bone of contention between the traditional fishermen and the mechanised boat operators. The latter opposed the ban, saying that it deprived them of export variety species found in the Kerala waters only during the monsoon season.

The commerce ministry and the Marine Products Export Development Authority were also opposing the ban as they felt that the traditional sector was not capable of netting the export variety fishes found in the Kerala waters.

The mechanised boat operators further said the claims by traditional fishermen that monsoon was the breeding period for several fishes, including shoals, had no scientific basis. They claimed that they had enough scientific data to show that the breeding period is usually in November and December, and not between June and August.

The mechanised boat owners had agreed to a ban on trawling during November-December when Fisheries Minister T K Ramakrishnan called them for a discussion. However, the traditional fishermen said the studies have revealed that the fish catch by both sectors had shown improvement since the imposition of the ban. They claimed that the ban, therefore, was in the interest of both the sectors.

Kerala Independent Fishworkers Federation president T Peter said the demand by mechanised boat owners to impose a ban during November and December had no relevance, since no fishing takes place during that period. Peter said the federation was not satisfied with the 45-day ban, and said the ban will produce the desired result only if it covers the entire monsoon season of three months. He said the national fishworkers forum will be launching a nation-wide strike soon to demand permanent and total ban on monsoon trawling.

The forum has also demand cancellation of licences granted to foreign trawlers and withdrawal of the aquaculture bill.

As part of the nation-wide stir, traditional fishermen in the Kerala capital picketed the secretariat last week, following which they picketed various district headquarters in the state. The mechanised boat owners are also meeting shortly to discuss their strategy in view of the announcement of the ban by the government. A spokesman of the mechanised boat owners said that an agitation was on the cards.

Tell us what you think of this report