SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: Fishermen from Salcete have raised questions about the ongoing Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) survey conducted by the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA) to identify fishermen’s houses and fishing activities in four coastal and three riverine villages of the taluka.
One group of fishermen from Cavelossim specifically wanted to know if the survey would take into account the fish processing and net mending yards, which used to exist on the shore in the past but are no longer found on the beach.
This concern surfaced during a meeting convened by the Cavelossim panchayat, allowing Fisheries Department officials involved in the survey exercise to respond to the doubts raised by local fishermen.
The DGPS survey aims to identify fishermen houses, traditional fish processing yards, boat building or repair yards, net mending yards, ice plants, ice storage, auction halls, and jetties in various talukas.
Director of Fisheries Deepesh Priolkar stated that the DGPS survey is being conducted in the village panchayats of Colva, Betalbatim, Varca, Assolna, Cavelossim, Ambelim, Velim, and that GCZMA had asked the department to depute officials to help with the identification of houses of the fishermen. Cavelossim Sarpanch Dixon Vaz, however, raised potential concerns and reasoned that at the time of the last survey, there might have been just one house of the traditional fishermen, which may have now increased to three due to the increase in the size of the family. Vaz wanted confirmation if the survey would mention all the additional houses too in the survey.
He also pointed out that some fishermen once had around 5-6 huts (kuds) that do not exist anymore, but they want to know where their huts will be mentioned in the survey.
Vaz also urged the government to take into consideration the fact that some of the traditional fishing families have moved to the toddy tapping profession or to operating taxis and water sports. He demanded that the survey include these facts.
Fisheries Union pushes for action against illegal fishing in Zuari
MARGAO: The All Goa Small-Scale Responsible Fisheries Union has criticised the Fisheries Department for failing to act on their complaints against alleged illegal fishing that has been taking place in Zuari River recently.
They alleged this is part of a larger aim of the government ‘to trigger the collapse of the Zuari river gillnet fishery being protected by traditional small scale fishers in their capacity as stewards of the sea’. They added that the inaction by the authorities with respect to the complaints they had filed before the Goa Fisheries control room is only serving to destroy the marine ecology and livelihood of legally permitted small scale fishers in coastal waters.
