The Fisheries Department on Friday released a large number of fishlings in the water spread area of Mettur Dam, following the onset of southwest monsoon in Karnataka.
The onset of southwest monsoon is usually the breeding season for fish in Mettur Dam. The fishlings are nurtured at the Government Fish Seeds and Fishling Rearing Farm functioning in Mettur. It takes about 45 days for spawning of fish seeds and hatching the same into fishlings.
About 46 lakh fishlings were released in the Mettur Dam during 2014-15. The government had fixed the same target for the current year too (June 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016).
More than 80 per cent of the target had already been achieved. And the rest of the fishlings will be released in the Mettur Dam by June 30, Fisheries Department sources told The Hindu on Saturday. Adequate fishling stock was received from the Government Fish Farms in Krishnagiri, Bhavanisagar etc for achieving the target.
C. Subramani, Assistant Director, Fisheries, released the fishlings in Masilapalayam water spread area in the Mettur Dam in the presence of M. Kathiresan, Inspector of Fisheries and other officials and members of the Mettur Dam Fishermen Cooperative Marketing Society.
Meanwhile, the Fisheries Department has intensified steps to check the activities of unlicensed fishermen who use country-made fishing nets and destroy fish wealth.
The department has already banned using small mesh size nets and mosquito nets for catching fish in the water spread area. Despite the warning, some fishermen were using these nets, which destroyed the fish wealth to a big extent. This affected the reproduction and also endangered fish population, which in turn affected the livelihood of fishermen. The department officials for the past one month have been conducting raids every day in various parts of water spread area of the dam to check illegal activities.
During such raids, the officials seized coracles and banned nets besides the fish catch from the fishermen, sources added.
