Fishermen’s organizations
and boat owners in Kerala are wringing their hands over Sri Lankan government’s
recent decision to let more than a dozen Chinese fishing vessels to operate
under the island country’s flag under an arrangement called ‘distant water
fishing’.
The arrangement lets a
country’s fishing fleet to scoop up marine wealth from another country’s
exclusive economic zone for money.
On Saturday, a statement by
Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedi said the move to let Chinese vessels operate close
to common fishing ground between India and Sri Lanka would affect the
livelihood of thousands of fishermen.
The Chinese vessels,
reported to be more than 150 feet long, would sweep clean India’s best deep-sea
fishing resource in the Wadge Bank, south of Cape Comorin and extending up to
Sri Lanka over an area of about 4,000 sq. miles, which was a common fishing
ground for the two neighbouring countries, claimed Charles George, convenor of
the Aikya Vedi.
He said one of the
resources that would be hauled away in mammoth scale by the industry-scale
boats operating in the sea off India would be oceanic tuna which the country
has just begun to exploit.
A scientist studying tuna
catch and business said fallout of high level of tuna fishing in the common
fishing ground had begun to show with the tuna catch by Indian fishermen
plummeting since 2008.
Lakshwadeep fishermen
specialised in skipjack tuna had reported serious catch reduction. The total
catch fell from 8,000 tonnes to 1,500 tonnes in 2011. But last year saw some
improvement with tuna catch going up to 2,500 tonnes, said E. M. Abdussamad,
senior scientist at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute.
He said tuna were a
migratory species and fishing in the Chagos Lakkadeve Ridge area, which runs
close to India and through which large schools of tuna migrate, had a big
impact on the stock of tuna.
Nine species of tuna are
there in Indian waters. India has a potential to net 1.7 lakh tonnes of the
commercially important oceanic tuna a year. However, the country has been
catching only around 25,000 tonnes a year so far. The Chinese vessels will
likely snatch away a share of this meagre catch too.
However, coastal tuna,
swimming closer to the shores, were well-exploited with landings amounting to
around 80,000 tonnes out of an estimated potential for more than one lakh
tonnes, said Dr. Abdussamad.
Mr. George said
overexploitation of tuna resources had landed fishermen in the Maldives in
trouble. And in India, fishermen in Koclachel, Kanyakumari district faced a
similar fate. Mechanised Boat Owners’ Association said issues like this one had
been brought to the notice of the Union government six months ago in a
memorandum.
Joseph Xavier Kalappurakkal
of the association said more than 70 Letters of Permission had been issued to
foreign vessels to operate in the seas off the Indian coasts. He said there was
no way to check how many vessels exploit resources in Indian Exclusive Economic
Zone, and warned that Indian deep sea resources were being exploited without
any check.
Mr. George alleged that at
least a hundred vessels were trawling in waters close to Indian economic zone
and sometimes within the territory, indiscriminately harvesting resources like
oceanic squid.
Keywords: Distant
water fishing, fishing in
Indian waters, Kochi, fishermen
forum, Chinese
fishing vessels, Sri Lankan
boats
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