Kerala   

Boat owners not to violate extended ban on trawling

Special Correspondent

March to Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute today

CHECK ON LAW-BREAKERS: The police keeping vigil at Fort Kochi to prevent the fishing trawlers from going out for fishing defying the extended ban imposed by the Supreme Court, on Tuesday. --PTI

KOCHI: The Kerala State Mechanised Fishing Boat Operators' Association has decided not to venture into the sea defying the extended trawling ban that ends on August 15.

At a meeting of the association here on Tuesday, boat owners said they would go to the sea "only when the State Government gives the green signal."

They said the State Government had let them down as earlier it had given them a `silent go ahead' to go fishing after the 45-day State Government-imposed trawling ban ended on July 29. This was despite the July 17 Supreme Court order extending the ban up to August 15.

Since the Government was against extending the ban and since it had filed a review petition in the Supreme Court, the boat owners said they were under the impression that they would be allowed to fish. Gillnet boats had not been restrained from fishing too. Moreover, the Government had not notified the ban extension (until July 29).

Accordingly, by July 29, the boat owners had got their boats readied, bought large quantities of ice and other requirements and also hired fishermen to man the boats. Each boat owner had spent around Rs.20,000 for this. This was why several boats had defied the extended ban on July 30.

Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal, secretary of the association, told The Hindu that the boat owners had suffered a collective loss of Rs.32 lakhs for getting the boats ready.

He said his association was not for defying the ban, though some fishworkers' unions had threatened to do so.

Protest march today

Meanwhile, a large number of fishworkers from Ernakulam, Thrissur and Alappuzha districts, representing different segments of the fishing industry, are expected to converge on Kochi on Wednesday to take a protest march to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI). They will protest at what they call the scientists' bias as regards monsoon trawling ban. The unions say that monsoon varied widely in these States and hence a uniform ban was unscientific. Moreover, they say, Kerala's climate, marine ecology and fish products during the monsoon were different from other States'.

Leaders of CITU and INTUC as well as some MLAs from Ernakulam district are expected to address the marchers. The agitators are planning to blockade the CMFRI.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Eight-hour duty schedule in 17 police stations
Use and misuse of Internet on the rise
Online counselling for Cusat B.Tech. course
KWA begins work on `Choondy Scheme'
Six factors identified as disaster risks in Kochi
Boat owners not to violate extended ban on trawling
KSRTC's debt equation with IOC remains the same
Vehicle pooling mooted to reduce traffic congestion in city
10-paise call rate scheme for BSNL pre-paid customers
Scheme to reduce `book load' evokes good response
Talks with Government a farce, say managements
Meeting of great literary minds
End stalemate, AKPCTA tells university
Honouring the Chief Khasi
Cusat to introduce MBA twinning programme
Number of pending cases reduced
`Food for the Hungry' project launch tomorrow
India Post introduces `Rakhi envelope'
Chambakkara boat race on August 27
Building inauguration
Supreme Court to hear Kerala plea on August 7
Briefly
Reader's Mail

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu