The WWF-India team along with the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology organised an awareness meet on the use of trawl nets with turtle excluder device (TED) among those engaged in fishing activity here on Wednesday.
Beaches such as Gahirmatha and Rushikulya in Odisha are the second largest nesting centres for the endangered Olive Ridley turtles, after Costa Rica. However, since 2014, there has been an increase in the nesting by about 5 to 10% along the coastline of APfrom Srikakulam to Visakhapatnam.
This has been a cause of worry for conservationists, as the fishermen along the AP coast do not use the trawl nets designed by the CIFT with the TED.
The usage of the TED trawl nets is low here unlike in Odisha, and this endangers the turtles, said Vinod M, senior coordinator, marine programme, WWF-India.
He said the mating period of the Olive Ridleys was from November to February, adding their survey showed the activity took place in 5-km radius at different places near the coast.
Clearing the air on the huge decline in fish catch due to the TED nets, he said, “We conducted many surveys and it has been observed that if the CIFT designed TED trawl nets are used, the loss in fish catch is barely 2.7 % and not 30 to 40% as apprehended by the fishermen.”
