The Fisheries Department has registered 41 cases against mechanised boat fishermen for using pair trawling nets even as country boat fishermen offered to surrender their nets and boat Registration Certificates (RC), demanding stern against them.
Dissatisfied with action taken by the department, country boat fishermen from Pamban visited the office of the Assistant Director of Fisheries Department in Rameswaram on Monday and offered to surrender their nets and RC books.
The fishermen, owing allegiance to Tamil Nadu Meenpidi Thozhirsanga Koottamaippu, affiliated to the CITU, demanded that the department confiscate the nets and boats of those who used pair trawling and purse seine nets.
Despite the ban, a section of fishermen continued to indulge in illegal fishing, M. Karunamurthy, district secretary of the Koottamaippu, said. Gopinath, Assistant Director of Fisheries, explained to the fishermen that the department registered the cases for using banned pair trawling on Sunday.
It seized a pair of nets and auctioned five tonnes of catch. All these cases would be referred to the Deputy Director of Fisheries, he said. Mr.Karunamurthy, however, alleged that about 100 mechanised boats had used pair trawling after they had set out for fishing on Saturday and the illegal fishing could be stopped only if the department confiscated the nets and cancelled the boats’ registration.
