PANAJI
Goa has over 1,500 canoes, a vast majority of them motorised, which are registered on the books of the fisheries department's but they are not permitted to use purse seine nets in the inland waters as well as up to five kilometers from the shore along the Arabian sea coast.
In fact, the department has booked and taken action against the illegal use of purse seine nets by at least 30 of these canoe owners over the last 18 months.
One of these errant canoe owners from Varca, was fined Rs 20,400 while the rest of them were let off with a penal payment of Rs 5.000.
Divulging this in written answers to queries posed by Benaulim MLA, Venzy Viegas in the Goa legislative assembly, Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar also said, purse seine nets are only permitted beyond the 5-kilometer zone off Goa's coast in the Arabian sea.
Turf wars over the five-kilometer shallow zone nearer the coast along Goa's 105-kilometer coastline are not merely restricted only to the much documented skirmishes between mechanised trawler owners (who are banned from fishing in this zone) and the smaller, traditional Goan fishermen.
Motorised canoe owners using purse seine nets are another set of fishers who encroach on this turf, exclusive in theory for the traditional fishing communities inhabiting the coastal villages, who blame purse seine fishing for the depleting stocks of small, pelagic shoaling fish such as anchovies (kapsadi), sardines (tarle), trevally (daiin or kokarra) and mackerel.
These communities, which use the traditional methods like the hand pulled rampon and other nets closer to the shore, blame the rise of purse seine fishing and warn of these small species disappearing from Goa's coastal waters.
According to data provided by Halarnkar, Mormugao tops among talukas with the highest number of registered canoes with 348 followed by Bardez with 327.
Tiswadi which has 237 and Canacona with 232 come next. Salcete has 149 registered canoes while Pernem has 137.
