A hoarding informing fishermen about the precautions they need to take while fishing in the sea and also the need to maintain cleanliness at Bunder was installed near the office of the Deputy Director of Fisheries here on Thursday.
Installation of the hoarding is a part of the initiatives taken under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikasa Yojana for conservation of fish resources. S.M. Shivaprakash, principal investigator of the project, said the aim of the project was to raise awareness among fishermen about Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) guidelines on responsible fishing. The guidelines had come about following a forecast that fish would vanish by 2048, he said. The hoarding refers to each of the popular species of fish and crab. For instance, mackerel (bangude) is referred as “badavara aasha kirana”, while sardine (bhootai) as “badavara bandhu”. Seer (anjal) fish is referred as “karavaligara soubhagya”, while prawn as “kadala ratna”. Apart from asking fishermen to stop catching young fish, the hoarding asks them to maintain cleanliness at fish-landing points.
Mr. Shivaprakash said 30 such hoardings would be installed at 16 fish-landing points between Mangalore and Karwar.
Unveiling the hoarding, Chief Executive Officer of the Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat K.N. Vijaya Prakash said that a team of officials from the city corporation would monitor maintenance of cleanliness at Bunder. Chairman of the Karnataka Fisheries Development Corporation Nitin Kumar spoke.
