Munambam model to be replicated

Stakeholders to have direct role in running fishing harbours and their upkeep

Best management: The Munambam fishing harbour is able to handle around 100 boats at a time during the peak season between August and September.

The success of the Munambam Harbour Management Society in efficiently managing the affairs of one of the busiest fishing harbours in the State has prompted the Fisheries Department to replicate its success in 13 more harbours.

There are 24 fishing harbours across the State and management societies have been constituted in 13 of them. “They will follow the example of the Munambam society,” said a senior Fisheries Department official.

The society is headed by respective district collectors as chairpersons and deputy director of fisheries as member secretary.

The society will have representatives from all spheres of activities associated with the fishing harbour to ensure that all interests are represented at the harbour management level.

The Munambam Harbour Management Society was registered under the Travancore-Cochin Charitable Societies Act and the society took over the day-to-day running of the harbour from the Harbour Engineering Department in 2005. Since then, the harbour management had been in the hands of the society, which comprised representatives of stakeholder communities that included fishers, Fisheries Department, workers and fish sellers, said the official.

Girish Munambam, a boat owner and a veteran in the field, said that the running of the Munambam harbour had been orderly and efficient over these years.

He said the best part of the management was that stakeholders had a direct role in the running of the harbour, its daily works and upkeep.

The official said that while the society was in no position to make capital investments, it was able to raise money through tolls and user fee imposed on stakeholders.

Located in the Pallippuram panchayat, Munambam harbour is the home base for more than 500 vessels that include 350 trawler boats, 100 gill netters and 50 traditional fishing boats.

During the peak season of the year between August and September, the harbour is able to handle around 100 boats at a time.

The fisheries harbour is constantly inspected by the Export Inspection Agency and other agencies like NETFISH under the Marine Products Export Development Authority.