Fisheries stakeholders in the State have said unrestrained operation of foreign vessels is eating into marine resources legitimately belonging to the country and its fishing community and that the government must initiate action to support local fishermen.
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The issue was raised prominently during the recent WTO meeting in Abu Dhabi. Fisheries stakeholders from Kerala, who participated in the Abu Dhabi meet, claimed that mechanised fishing had seriously depleted global marine fisheries resources.
The stakeholders pointed out that 70% of Indian fishermen lived in poverty and contributed nothing to the reported depletion of resources. “The reasons for the depletion of sea wealth resources in India’s seawaters is not the result of wild and reckless fishing by Indian fishermen,” said Joseph Xavier Kalapurackal, who was part of the delegation.
The resources had been depleted by “uncontrolled usurpation of foreign sophisticated big vessels with technologies to use high voltage sighting devices to attract and sweep away the fish wealth”, he added.
The fishermen’s delegation appealed to the government to equip them to meet new challenges of deep sea fishing since they had the expertise and experience to capitalise on resources available in the deeper waters. They needed government support in providing them with instruments that could make good use of their experience and expertise, added Mr. Kalapurackal.