the goan I network
VASCO
Two fishing bodies -- Goa Fishing Boat Owners Association (GFBOA) representing the fishing trawler owners and Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) representing traditional canoe owners -- have come to a war of words over the poor catch of fish during season.
While GFBOA president Jose Philip said that the start of this season has been extremely bad, with trawler owner suffering huge losses due to bad weather, GRE vice-president Olencio Simoes said that rampant illegal fishing activities, using destructive gears like LED lights and bull trawling, is responsible for the poor catch.
While D’Souza said that he will approach the fisheries minister requesting some compensation, Simoes said that they will demand a ban on destructive gear like LED and bull trawling with the fisheries minister, so that there is enough fish for everyone in the future.
While D’Souza hoped that the weather will clear out soon and good fish will be caught, Simoes said that if the fishing ban period is violated and destructive gear use is not stopped, there will be no fish left and stringent measures like in Norway will have to be adopted wherein there is a cover ban on fishing for five years.
“This fishing season, there is no fish for anyone till date, whether trawlers or canoes. The only reason for this is the illegal use of destructive gears like LED lights and bull trawling. We have been protesting to stop this for the last three years but nothing much has been done. Last season itself, using LED lights, around one lakh ton of fish was caught that was officially declared and the unofficial figure could be twice as much. There has been rampant violations during the fishing ban period. Today fishing is carried out in rivers and we feel that there will be a very poor catch of fish in the sea this season because of all this. We demand a compensation from the government for the losses borne by the canoe owners,” said Simoes.
