Mechanised fishing on Goa shores impact traditional fishermen

Goa's traditional fishing community has alleged gross neglect at the hands of the state government and said that the trawling activity near the coast has posed a threat to their livelihood.

Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE), an association of traditional fishermen said that the mechanised trawlers were fishing within 50 metres off the coast although they are strictly prohibited from fishing within five kms off the shore.

Traditional fishermen, who fish with small canoes, say that many a time mechanised boats destroy their nets, which are laid near the shore.

In a letter to the state fisheries minister Joaquim Alemao, GRE has said that they are always at the receiving end while favours are doled out to the non-traditional fishermen.

"As you are aware, there is depletion in the marine resources and during the current season, the traditional fishermen got very little catch," GRE president Agnelo Fernandes and general secretary Matanhy Saldanha said in the letter jointly signed by them.

They have alleged that there is a brazen violation of the Goa Marine Fisheries Regulation Act 1981, which prohibits mechanised vessels from fishing within five kms off the coast.

"These vessels are found even as close as 50 metres from the coast," the GRE said.

The association affiliated to National Fish Workers Forum has alleged that the trawlers even threaten the traditional fishermen's canoes with capsizing.

The traditional fishermen allege that the state government's largesse is mostly for the mechanised sector. "It begins to rankle and make us wonder whether for you the fishing industry comprises only of the mechanised sector as your family members are part and parcel of it," the letter reads.

The family of fisheries minister owns several fishing trawlers which operate from cutbona jetty, in south Goa.

To salvage from the crisis, GRE has demanded that the subsidy offered to traditional fishermen community on kerosene purchase be doubled.

Saldanha said that the demand was put three months back but the state has not bothered to respond.