Kerala - Kollam   

Crackdown on `destructive' fishing

Staff Reporter

SAVING FISH SPECIES: Bush park fishing traps being removed from Ashtamudi Lake in an operation launched by the Fisheries Department in Kollam on Tuesday.

KOLLAM: In a dawn to dusk operation, the Fisheries Department, assisted by the police, cleared more than one hundred `thoopum-padalams' (bush park fishing traps) from Ashtamudi Lake. The bush park fishing is regarded as a destructive method of fishing, which will result in the extinction of fish species.

The operation was under the supervision of District Collector K. Vijayakumar. It was directly led by Deputy Director of the Fisheries Department K.J. Prasannakumar, Superintendent of the Fisheries Department V.K. Madhusoodanan, and Backwaters Inspector P. Rajendran. The Anchalumoodu police extended support for the operation.

Tuesday's operation was along the Kadavur, Kureepuzha and Thevally areas of the lake. More than five sq.km. of the lake was cleared in the operation.

Duping the fish

The estimate of the Fisheries Department is that in the wake of the monsoon, more than 800 bush park fishing traps have been set in the lake.

It is expected that within the next one week all these too will be cleared.

Bush park fishing is a method through which a mini mangrove forest atmosphere is created in the lake by dumping huge amounts of tree branches.

Many species of fish mistake it for being a apt place to spawn and arrive there in huge numbers. They are then trapped and netted.

The biggest destruction here is that the fish are not allowed to breed and hence a destructive method of fishing.

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