Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (SP)

Udupi, Oct 15: Fishermen from Karwar, who had taken six fishing boats from Malpe and Mangalore into their possession for conducting deep sea fishing by using bull trawlers, released the boats on Tuesday October 14. Before releasing the boats, they took the fishermen to the city police station in Karwar and got bonds executed by the boat drivers there.

The fishermen from Uttara Kannada district had earlier urged the Coastal Security Police Force and district administration to act against boats involved with fishing by using bull trawlers near the seashore in the district. They had warned that in case of failure on the part of government departments, the fishermen would take the erring boats into custody.

The fishermen, bringing their threats into practice, took six boats owned by people from Malpe and Mangalore on the night of Saturday last. They forced these boats to moor at Baithakhol fishing port. These boats have been identified as Sri Ganapati owned by Praveen M Mallya Malpe, Sea Phonic owned by Rehamat Saheb, Akshaya Nidhi owned by Muhammed Ummer Farooq, Sea Rock owned by Sameer Muhammed and His Grace, owned by Abdul Munaf.

The fishermen leaders initially stuck to their demand for the presence of boat owners at Karwar to execute bonds before their boats could be released. However, after boat owners contacted fishermen leaders from the district on Tuesday and appealed for releasing of the boats, duly promising not to conduct bull trawler fishing near the seashore of that district, the boats were released after the drivers signed these bonds.