The Supreme Court interim order allowing purse seine fishing on the Tam – il Nadu coast albeit with stringent regulations has caused mixed reactions from the fish – ing community. Some fisherfolk say the order comes in time (fishing sea – son in TN begins in February) as their livelihood depends on this method, considered by some as the most effi – cient way of catching smaller shoaling fish.<\/p>\n
Traditional country boat fisher – men though are not happy as they have been protesting against the practice for long, saying it results in declining stocks of small fish. Ecologists have been opposing purse seine fishing, believed to be among the less sustain – a b l e m e t h o d s a s i t t e n d s to snare entire shoals of fish. Hearing applications filed by TN fishermen associations challenging the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Maritime Fishing Regulations, 1983, that banned fishing vessels from purse seining or pair trawling, the SC passed the interim order allowing the method beyond the territorial waters of the state but within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) with certain conditions.<\/p>\n
TN\u2019s territorial waters end at 12 nautical miles and the EEZ waters extend after that to 200 nauti – cal miles. The ban on purse seine fishing within 12 nautical miles is still in effect, says a fisheries department official from Chennai. \u201cNone of the vessels in TN has been registered as purse seine boats. Fishermen go purse seine fishing using boats regis – tered as trawlers.\u201d The problem, however, is ensuring the regulations are implemented. The Fisheries Department has no man – power or machinery to enforce the existing Marine Fisheries Act\u2019s pro – vision, say fishermen. \u201cThe fisheries department struggles to enforce any law. The department depends on the Indian Coast Guard for enforcement but there are too many fishermen and fishing activities for them to monitor.<\/p>\n
It will be almost impossible for them to ensure purse seine fishers abide by the SC rules,\u201d says T Karunamoorthy, secretary of the fish workers associ – ation in Ramanathapuram. \u201cCountry boat fishermen also do purse seine fishing illegally within territorial waters and officials are not able to curb it. Several species have dwindled near the coast due to this harmful fishing practice.\u201d Karunamoorthy and several other fishermen leaders are preparing for a state-wide agitation against the order. \u201cThe state government should counter this order through legal measures.\u201d R Arulpragasam, former village panchayat president of Devanampat – tinam, says the livelihoods of thou – sands of fishermen depend on purse seine fishing. \u201cThis practice is not banned in Kerala or Karnataka.<\/p>\n
People oppose it without understanding the tech – nique. The fish in the pelagic zone is caught using purse seine nets. The catch is of high quality and fetches a good price in local and international markets,\u201d says Arulpragasam. \u201cDevelopment policies by the In – dian fisheries department are produc – tion-intensive and export-oriented. They have been this way since Inde – pendence. It has been termed the Blue Revolution,\u201d says Jones T Spartegus, social scientist and fisheries policy analyst from Tuticorin. \u201cDestructive gear like purse seine and trawl nets were not invented by fishers but are products of state-sub – sided schemes. The verdict should have served as a solution to resolve the fishery resources conflict among fisherfolk.<\/p>\n
Instead, it will increase it.\u201d Spartegus says he believes it will result in fisherfolk adopting more resource-exploitative destructive gear, which will eventually lead to a scarcity of fish. \u201cAlso, while the order allows the state government to protect its territorial waters, it gives a free hand to the Union government to pro – mote the fishers to carry out destruc – tive fishing at the EEZ for export revenue,\u201d says Spartegus. \u201cMarine resources will be depleted at the EEZ. Fishermen who do not venture beyond TN\u2019s territorial wa – ters will not get their regular catch,\u201d says a scientist from the Central ma – rine fisheries research institute. R M P Rajendran, Nagapattinam district president of the Indian Na – tional Fishermen Association, has welcomed the order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fisheries department needs to convene an ex – pert committee meeting to formulate rules for the fishing community based on the orders,\u201d says Rajendran. A Thajudeen, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu fishermen feder – ation from Mallipattinam in Thanja – vur, says his concern is that fisher – men using country boats will suffer. \u201cOpening up the waters to purse seine fishing is going to mean in – creased catch, which can result in a price fall. That will crush country boat fishermen who bring in small amounts of fish to the shore. The state government needs to establish cold storage facilities to store huge catches to avert a fall in price,\u201d says Thajudeen. Trawl boat owners though are staying silent. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to com – ment because then we will get caught out for pair-trawling, which is still illegal,\u201d says a boat owner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[178],"tags":[],"region":[],"source":[228],"country":[9132],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/100368"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/100368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100369,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/100368\/revisions\/100369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100368"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=100368"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=100368"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=100368"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=100368"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=100368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}