Fishermen threaten stir over vessels with LED lights

Santosh Mirajkar.

Fishermen threaten stir over vessels with LED lights

Say no action has come forth from the govt despite deadline

THE GOAN NETWORK

MARGAO

Traditional fishermen and small boat owners on Saturday demanded to know the status of the eight-day deadline set by the Fisheries department to the fishing vessels to remove the LED lights from the vessels.

While taking strong exception to the government’s silence in allowing the fishing vessels to fish

with LED lights, the fishermen have warned of launching an agitation if the Fisheries department

fails to crack a whip against these fishing vessels. They have even gone to the extent of warning the

government that the traditional fishermen will be forced to block the fishing vessels with LED lights

from venturing out in the sea if no action is forthcoming from the government.

Addressing the media, Joe D’Costa wondered why the government and the fisheries department

are dragging their feet in getting the LED lights removed from the fishing vessels despite the eight-day deadline expiring last week. “We had knocked the doors of the Chief Minister, Laxmikant

Parsekar to find a way out and get the LED lights removed from the fishing vessels. But, none of

the vessels have removed the lights till date,” he lamented, while saying that the traditional

fishermen are indeed passing through a difficult phase in their occupation.

Pandari Kerkar said though the traditional fishermen have called on the Fisheries Director Dr

Shamila Monteiro, Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado and the governemnt, nothing has been

done to crack a whip against the LED lights.

“Fishing with LED lights will affect the traditional fishermen in a big way. The government has not acted on our petition to stop the illegal fishing with LED lights. Even in Karnataka, the local government has acted against vessels with LED lights,” he said, while demanding to know why the Goa government is going slow against the fishing vessels with LED lights.