Ahead of the ban on monsoon bottom-trawling that took effect on June 14 midnight, over 2000 mechanised fishing bloats went ashore for a 47-day forced fishing holiday along the Kerala coast.

Many of them had already stopped fishing for the last couple of days while others had gone out to the sea even on the last day before the season ends. Hundreds of boats from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka which fish along the Kerala coast have left to return in time for the lifting of the ban on July 31. Trawlers (mechanised boats fitted with trawls) will not be allowed to venture into the 12-nautical-mile wide territorial waters.

However, motorised traditional boats (vallom or canoes) are allowed to fish.

The ban on trawling, which has been an established annual ritual in the fishing sector in Kerala since 1988, and along the country’s eastern and western coasts for some years now, is aimed to help regeneration of fishery resources. Several major fish species common along the Kerala coast, the monsoon months are their spawning season. The bottom-trawling by trawl-fitted mechanised boats, if allowed to fish during this period, tend to destruct the juvenile fish population.

“We have found from experience over the nearly three decades of trawl ban in Kerala that that it is extremely necessary for sustainable fishing,” says Charles George, a fishing trade union leader.

“There is a consensus among the traditional fishers, mechanised fishers, the State government and fisheries scientists that the ban helps regeneration.” In fact, George told BusinessLine the traditional fishing sector, which he represented, was for extending the ban to 90 days. He pointed out that the Kochi-based Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute had suggested longer periods of fishing holidays, but in two instalments. However, doubts persist in some sections of the fishing industry.

Uniform holidays

The fishing holiday has already started in other western maritime States. Their ban is effective from June 1 to July 31. On the eastern coast, the ban is from April 1 to June 30. Learning from Kerala’s experience, and on a directive from the Supreme Court, the Centre had in 2005 ordered annual fishing ban along the coasts of nine maritime States, though in two different seasons.

However, the traditional fishing community in Kerala was exempted from the ban in 2007 by the then LDF government through legislation—the Pelagic Fishing Rights Act. As a result, around 20,000 valloms can continue to fish in the monsoon season.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW