THE GOAN NETWORK | PANAJI
By Monday, the two-month ban on mechanised fishing trawlers will end and there will be no bar for the many boats anchored at the Malim fishing jetty to go out at sea, yet the tandels in charge of navigating these boats are in no hurry to set sail from Tuesday itself.
Launch deferred
The weather, according to many boat owners, isn't conducive to set sail and most have deferred the launching of operations post the two-month ban to beyond August 15, giving the fisheries department and the fishermen's cooperative managing the jetty more time to get ready.
The fish workers, mostly hailing from out of the State and who usually go to their native places during the ban to help their families with farm work, have been asked to return only for a post-August 15 commencement of operations.
"The weather is not very good. Almost 90 per cent of us have collectively decided to not commerce fishing activity anytime soon. Maybe after August 15," said Harshad Dhond, who operates a purse seine and heads the Goa Purse Seine Owners Association.
Only a few smaller boats (trawlers) from Malim jetty may venture out for fishing expeditions earlier or as soon as the ban is lifted on August 1, according to Dhond, who is also director of Mandovi Fishermen Marketing Cooperative Society Limited, which manages the logistics at the jetty.
Action against
illegalities
Meanwhile, the Fisheries Department will have its cup full as smaller fishing entrepreneurs and traditional fishermen in the State continue to exert pressure to take action against illegalities by the mechanised boat owners such as the use of LED lights and also fishing in shoreline waters.
At the Malim jetty, like all other fish-landing jetties across the State, the fisheries department has an office manned by a fisheries officer with additional staff but not enough hands to have every trawler which operates from there inspected for equipment and other materials used for the banned LED fishing.
"Random checking of boats happens all the time. But not every boat can be checked," Dhond said, adding that LED fishing is otherwise policed off-shore by the Coast Guard.
