The Hindu Business Line : `More infrastructural facilities needed for tuna fishing'

INDIA still has a long way to go in tuna fishing and at present the catch is negligible, though the potential has been assessed fairly accurately, Dr V.S. Somvanshi, Director-General of the Fishery Survey of India, has said.

Delivering the key-note address at a seminar on tuna fishing here on Wednesday, he said infrastructural facilities for tuna fishing need to be built as efforts made so far had not yielded the desired results.

In this connection, he said the efforts of some of the Vizag-based technocrats in converting their shrimp trawlers into mono-filament tuna long liners were commendable.

However, they should adopt the proper fishing strategies, he added. He said four vessels had been converted here for tuna fishing and two more were getting ready. The Government would subsidise the conversion costs at the rate of Rs 15 lakhs per vessel or 50 per cent of the cost, whichever was lower. He said, "It is a good beginning, but a very small one. We have to cover a lot more ground."

He said tuna tagging had been taken up in the Indian Ocean and India was participating in the effort along with other nations. "We want to carry out a similar exercise in the Bay of Bengal too, with Port Blair as the centre. We are also trying to use remote sensing techniques to track the movement of tuna," he said.

Dr S. Chellappa, Principal Secretary, AP Fisheries Department, said the future of Indian fisheries lies in tuna fishing. "We have not made much headway and a more concerted effort by all concerned is required."

He said the State Government had released diesel subsidy of Rs 4.2 crore for the mechanised boat operators here and the remaining amount would be released soon.

He said the State Government was planning to take up a Rs 68-crore project with the US-based World Tuna Development Organisation for tuna fishing.

The State Government and the US organisation would invest Rs 9 crores each and the rest would be borrowed from financial institutions. Dr K. Haribabu, Vice-Chairman of the Marine Products Export Development Authority, Dr Premchand, Zonal Director, Fishery Survey of India, and others spoke on the occasion.

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