The 45-day annual ban on deep sea fishing along the East Coast of Tamil Nadu will come into force from Wednesday. The ban, enforced by the district administration through Fisheries Department, is aimed at facilitating breeding of fishes and conservation of fish stock in marine ecology. The enforcement would remain in effect from April 15 till May 29.
Mechanised boats fishermen have been instructed not to venture into the sea to avoid disturbance caused by trawlers to marine life during the breeding season. Issue of mandatory tokens to fishermen by the Fisheries officials would be stopped. However, this restriction would not be binding on country boats, which would continue fishing as usual at sea, sources from Fisheries Department said here on Tuesday.
During the ban period, nets would be mended and overhauling works undertaken in 247 boats anchored at the fishing harbour, S. Xavier Vas, president, Tuticorin Mechanized Boat Owners Association, said. It would take 10 to 15 days for carrying out the maintenance work in every boat. Overhauling of engines, dry docking, carpentry works and painting of vessels would be carried out during this lean period. Boat owners would incur an expenditure of Rs. 2 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh.
He also sought the intervention of enforcement agencies to prevent any fishing vessel from trespassing into the Tuticorin coast. Several times fishermen from Kerala were engaged in fishing off the Tuticorin Coast and many have been caught by Tuticorin fishermen in 2008, 2012 and 2013.
Only after officials held talks with fishermen of Tuticorin and Kerala, seized boats from Kerala were released. Hence, stringent measures are needed to prevent such attempts, he said.
Meeting
Fisheries Department sources said the enforcement agencies would be involved in joint patrolling to curb such incidents and a meeting in this regard was convened by Collector M. Ravikumar. Superintendent of Police Ashwin M. Kotnis, Tuticorin Sub Collector S. Gopala Sundara Raj, Indian Coast Guard personnel and Marine Police personnel attended.
