The Hindu : Kerala News : Uneasy calm prevails at Shakthikulangara

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 15, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Uneasy calm prevails at Shakthikulangara

By Our Staff Reporter

Trawling boats berthed on the Ashtamudi Lake close to the Shakthikulangara Fishing Harbour in Kollam on Monday.

KOLLAM, JUNE 14. As the 45-day ban on trawling comes into effect from midnight today, an uneasy calm prevails at the Shakthikulangara Fishing Harbour area.

Trawling boat owners in Kollam have intensified their agitation by threatening to defy the ban if traditional fishing crafts, with inboard engines and using banned nets, are permitted to go to sea during the ban period.

Meanwhile, more than 400 trawling boats from other parts of the State, mainly from Beypore, Kozhikode and Munambam, have already sailed into the Shakthikulangara Harbour to express solidarity with the Kollam boat owners and also join them to defy the ban if such a situation arose.

As of now, the boats have been cleared from the harbour and berthed on the eastern side of the Neendakara Bridge as directed by the district authorities.

Yet, the boats have been kept ready to defy the ban if the demand of the boat owners was not met.

The area witnessed some tense moments this morning when a strong police posse arrived there to block a march organised by the boat owners to press for their demand. The police blocked the march at three points.

However, the boats owners held discussions with the police, following which they were allowed to continue with the march that ended peacefully.

Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Kollam District Fishing Boat Owners Association, M.S. James, told The Hindu that the Fisheries Minister, K.V. Thomas, had invited them for talks at 4 p.m. on June 16 in Thiruvananthapuram in the presence of the Chief Minister.

The boat owners are hopeful that the talks would be positive and that their demand would be met. When asked whether the boat owners would defy the trawling ban if the Government yielded to the demand to ban traditional crafts with inboard engines, Mr. James said that the protest against trawling ban would continue and that the future course of action over the issue would be decided later.

The immediate demand is to ban traditional vessels with inboard engines and the use of banned fishing nets by such traditional crafts, he said.

The boat owners said that though the trawling ban was introduced 12 years ago with the aim of preserving marine wealth as per a general conclusion that the monsoon season was the spawning season for fish, no conclusion had been reached that the ban on trawling had helped augment marine wealth in the Kerala waters.

They alleged that if there is a depletion of marine wealth, the prime cause was the use of the banned nets by the traditional vessels.

Expressing their own traditional knowledge of the sea and quoting scientific documents, the boat owners said that November to January was the spawning time for most fish species in the Kerala waters and that they are willing to consider that period as the most appropriate for a trawling ban if the Government was willing to talk.

The monsoon season is the only time when the boat owners in Kollam are able to harvest the export-oriented "karikadi'' variety of shrimp. It was this shrimp, which brought them the highest returns for their investment. The shrimp that can be harvested only by trawling disappears soon after the monsoon. Moreover, the "karikadi'' shrimp appears only in the waters off the Kollam coast.

The ban on trawling during the season over the years had brought huge losses to the mechanised boat owners and the seafood export sector based in Kollam, Mr. James said. He added that several boat owners had even committed suicide because of the loss incurred by them.

The traditional fishermen have warned that if the boat owners defy the ban, they would be forced to stop and seize the trawling boats at sea and that the Government would be solely responsible for any law and order problem arising out of the situation.

A strong police posse has been posted at the harbour area.

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