Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji
Panaji, Aug 18: Goa’s traditional fishing community has said that trawling activity near the coast has marginalised their livelihood.
Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE), an association of traditional fishermen, has said that the mechanised trawlers were fishing within 50 metres of the coast although they are strictly prohibited from fishing within five kilometers of the shore.
Traditional fishermen, who fish with small canoes, say that many a time mechanised boats destroy their nets, which are laid near the shore.
In a letter to state fisheries minister Joaquim Alemao, GRE has said that they are always at receiving end while favours are doled out to the non-traditional fishermen.
“As you are aware, there is depletion in the marine resources and during the current season, the traditional fishermen got very little catch,” GRE president Agnelo Fernandes and general secretary Matanhy Saldanha said in the letter jointly signed by them.
They have alleged that there is brazen violation of the Goa Marine Fisheries Regulation Act 1981, which prohibits mechanized vessels from fishing within five kms of the coast. “These vessels are found even as close as 50 mts from the coast,” GRE said.
The association affiliated to national fish workers forum has alleged that the trawlers even threaten the traditional fishermen’s canoes with capsizing.
The traditional fishermen have said that state government’s largesse is mostly for the mechanised sector while the traditional ones are grossly neglected.
“It begins to rankle and make us wonder whether for you the fishing industry comprises only of the mechanized sector as your family members are part and parcel of it,’’ the letter reads.
The family of fisheries minister owns several fishing trawlers which operate from cutbona jetty, in south goa.
To salvage from the crisis, GRE has demanded that the subsidy offered to traditional fishermen community on kerosene purchase be doubled.
Saldanha said that the demand was three months back but the state has not bothered to respond.