Stakeholders from fisheries sector in Dakshina Kannada district have decided to put off fishing by a month to September 1. Normally, they would have resumed fishing on August 1 after the completion of the annual 47-day deep-sea fishing holiday on July 31.

However, the issues related to migrant labourers have made the stakeholders to postpone the resumption of fisheries activities by a month.

Nitin Kumar, President of Mangaluru Trawl Boat Owners’ Association, told BusinessLine that at a meeting of representatives from fisheries sector, including boat owners and fish traders, they had taken a collective decision to start deep-sea mechanised fishing activities from September 1.

He said that it is essential to bring the labourers back to Mangaluru to restart the fisheries activities. The Covid pandemic and the lockdown after that had forced around 5,000 labourers from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal to go back to their native places.

The stakeholders from the fisheries sector will meet the officials from the Fisheries Department and the Fisheries Minister to discuss this issue.

Issues such as the transportation of these labourers, and their quarantine in Mangaluru will have to be looked into. Taking all these issues into consideration, a plan will be submitted to the government, he said.

Old Mangaluru Port (commonly known as Bunder) caters to the needs of around 1,200 mechanised boats from the region, he said. With a complement of around 8-10 members, these boats go for deep-sea fishing of 10-11 days.

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