Kerala - Kochi   

3,500 boats to go on forced vacation

KOCHI: Some 3,500 mechanised boats using trawls for fishing will be ‘shored’ for a-month-and-half in Kerala as the annual ban on trawling during monsoon will begin on June 14 midnight.

The ban will end on July 31. Other fishing States along the Western Coast of the country — Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat — will also follow the same ban schedule. Those in the Eastern Coast follows the April 15 to May 31 schedule. No mechanised vessel above 25 HP capacity will be allowed to fish during the ban period, though in Kerala, traditional fish workers using valloms (with inboard engines of much higher capacity) are not restricted.

The ban, an annual feature in Kerala since 1988, is aimed at facilitating unhindered breeding of fish during the rainy season. The trawls are believed to harm young fish en masse and hence the ban — though traditional fish workers and mechanised boat owners have differing views on the impact of the ban. The southwest monsoon period is the reproduction time of nearly 300 species of fish in the sea along the western coast. The ban is no longer applicable to the traditional fish workers as the Kerala Monsoon Fishery (Pelagic) Protection Bill 2007 exempted them last year. Over a lakh traditional fishermen stand to gain from the Act as it enables them to catch pelagic fish — such as oil sardine and mackerel — in the State’s territorial waters that stretch to 12 nautical miles.

The Act was enacted to overcome the restrictions imposed by a Supreme Court directive. An order by the Supreme Court, on a petition by the Goa Environmental Foundation, had asked governments of coastal States to enforce a ban on trawling during the monsoon period by mechanised boats as well as fishing by country craft that used engines of more than 9.9 HP capacity. Since the huge majority of traditional fishermen with valloms used inboard engines with a capacity much higher than the stipulated HP, they were deprived of their source of livelihood during the ban period. The ‘traditional fishermen’ are now not restricted by the size of the valloms or the capacity of the inboard engines they use. However, they can fish only in the territorial waters and catch only pelagic fish.

The ban affects the livelihoods of workers on the trawl boats as well as those engaged in fish processing. However, a section of workers on the trawl boat switch over to the valloms during the monsoon. The processing workers are affected because of the sharp decline in fish availability.

Trawl ban started in Kerala in 1988 on a recommendation by the Dr. A. Balakrishnan Nair Committee. That year, the ban was for 61 day, but since 1994, the ban days have averaged 45 days.

Joseph Xavier Kalappurackal, president of the Kerala State Fishing Boat Operators Association, says that there has been no concrete evidence that fish wealth has increased because of the ban. However, Charles George, president of the Kerala Matsyathozhilali Aikya Vedi, claims that the ban has boosted fish availability.

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