Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Jan 11: Members of Malpe Fishermen's Deep Sea Trawl Boat Association staged a protest at the premises of deputy director (DD) of fisheries department here on Wednesday January 10, against the high-voltage light-centric fishing by purse-seine boats.
Speaking to the media, president of the association Kishore D Suvarna said, "Deep-sea fishermen are facing a severe crisis of fishes. The state government passed an order to ban perse-seine fishing on March 25, 2017 and central government has also ordered to stop this destructive form of fishing on November 10, 2017. We have brought this to the notice of directive of fisheries, but so far no action has been taken in Udupi district.
"The ban order for using high volt lights for fishing is executed successfully in north Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala and Maharashtra region but not in Udupi. This shows that this is a failure of implementing the ban order in Udupi alone."
The deep sea fishermen tried to lock out DD's office. After a long discussion, fishermen gave a day's time to the department to take a decision on this subject.
"Purse-seine boats use high volt halogen lights to attract the fish, and then another group catches the fish in large numbers. During the breeding season, fishes are ready to lay eggs. But due to the continuous fishing by the purse-seine boats, the production of fishes is reduced to a great extent. As a result of this families of deep-sea fishermen will lose their livelihood in the near future.
"The Karnataka government is not taking any action and the Udupi district in-charge minister Pramod Madhwaraj is aware of this issue. If no action is taken in the next 24 hours, the fishermen will go for a massive protest," he warned.
Concluding his speech, he complained, "District minister said in a public programme that those who are engaged in purse-seine fishing are true fishermen. We do not what is mean by this statement. We feel that he has given such statement for political gains. Only 10% of fishermen are carrying out purse-seine boat fishing, the rest 90% depend on deep sea fishing for their livelihood.
"If the minister thinks purse-seine boat fishermen votes are enough, then he should be held responsible for the consequences. Minister Pramod should clarify his stand on the purse-seine boat fishing, as the ban order is passed by the state government itself. A strict action has to be taken immediately by the concerned department."