FRIDAY, MAY 17, 2024
When you think of Goa, you conjure up images of fishermen going out to sea or coming back from sea with a catch of fish. This image is like a frame in the minds and the hearts of not just Goans, but anybody who loves and feels for Goa. Unfortunately, what is going on behind that image is a sad reality that doesn’t often come up to the surface and this harsh reality is much like the plastic in our oceans or the waste that is buried inside, which you cannot see under the beautiful ocean, but it does exist.
The harsh reality for our fishing sector and fishermen in Goa is that our fisher folk, who simply saw fishing as a way of life, not just a livelihood, lived it as part of a culture, while the economics of it came alongside. Our families never had to bother as there was no shortage of food on the table. There was fresh fish to eat, the fields were completely full of life. The people who matter in the villages, who go out to the sea, are constantly worried about a series of events that have happened, which has led to the complete crushing of fishing as both - a way of life as well as a profession.
It has impacted Goa and it will impact the people in ways that we can’t even imagine. If our fishing resources in the sea goes down, if the fish is taken away by rogue trawlers coming from Karnataka entering into Goa’s waters, and then we have the so-called “forces of development”, where port limits are increasing, areas under the control of traditional fishermen are going down, it will have a cumulative effect of the fishing industry. This in turn is going to ruin Goa, if it hasn’t done that already.
The other aspect is that fishermen - both traditional fishermen as well as the trawler owners and others - have a lot of pending issues that need to be sorted out by the government, which supposedly prides itself as being a protector of fishermen. The issue here is that the jetties are in a pathetic shape. There are sand bars in front of jetties, which are leading to damage to boats caused by regular accidents. Fishermen’s welfare is not protected or not taken care of. Our sons of the soil don’t even have the money to mend their boats or the fishing nets.
Olencio Simoes, General Secretary, Goenchea Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE), said that there are multiple issues being faced by the fishing community of Goa. “Be it mechanisation or the destructive policies of the government, the problems are huge. Initially, the fight was always with the traditional and the non-traditional fishermen. But due to these issues, the very existence of fishermen is at stake. We are all likely to drown in this ocean, even though we have been surviving for centuries.”
“Now if you see, the Major Port Authorities Bill, 2020 states that an area up to 12 nautical miles is under the port’s jurisdiction. The CRZ has now come to 50 m. If you talk about the inland waterways, six rivers have been nationalised. Today, we don’t know whether we can fish in these rivers. We know that inland fisheries fetch a lot of catches each year. We are already seeing intrusion from other States. Boats are entering from outside into our territorial waters and unfortunately the Fisheries department has been a silent spectator. This department has been set up to protect the interest of the fishing sector of our State. But unfortunately, they haven’t been proactive in assuaging our fears,” Simoes said.
According to him, if this continues, everyone will perish in this ocean of greed which rampant causing exploitation of our natural resources.
In the past two to three months, the common refrain amongst everybody is that the government is not looking at the major issues now at this point of time. What are the key issues that are of immediate concern that need to be addressed in the next couple of months?
“Now very lately, we have seen Karnataka and Gujarat boats entering into our territorial water inside five nautical miles, which is actually the space for traditional fishermen. Every year we’ve been complaining to the Fisheries Department about this intrusion. In fact, some of these boats have been caught in the past,” he said.
“The Fisheries department catches some boats but releases them. This is the attitude we have seen. As far as the authorities are concerned, when our trawlers enter into other States, they are caught by the Fisheries department of that State. Then, why is that our department is still sleeping?” Simoes asked.
“Now we don’t know if it is so easy to enter inside the two nautical miles. Second issue is the safety of the people. Tomorrow any boat can enter into our territorial waters, dock into any of the private Jetties or the shipyards and load and unload anything. It could be fish or something else. So that is a huge safety issue. So, if government is not serious about protecting our territorial waters then it implies that the government has completely failed to protect the interest of its people,” the GRE General Secretary said.
We know very well that the coastal police station does not even have boats for the last four years. The coastal police do not have boats and if there are any intrusions by rogue trawlers coming in from outside, they take the help of local fisherman.
The general feeling is that in Goa, the traditional fishermen are under threat. We can see the big trawlers within the State doing brisk business and making money. Now the allegation is that the big trawler owners from other States are also coming in, making things even more tough for the traditional fishermen in Goa.
Being owner of a big trawler himself, Harshad Dhond, President, Goa Purse Seine Trawler Owners Association reflected on the situation.
“In early 2000s, we were also doing trawler business. There are two types of fishing. One is done on the trawlers, other one is Purse Seine. In the latter, you cast the net. The net is dragged in trawler fishing. So we also had small boats. But subsequently, our government stopped the registration certificates. So, once they stopped it, then our boats were limited. But our neighbours Maharashtra and Karnataka did not stop it. What happened in Karnataka in particular, they concentrated on Malpe jetty. Malpe is a place where they have a huge jetty, where there are 2.3 lakh boats.”
“They lifted all the restrictions on them. This was in early 2000. So, seeing this, our traditional fishermen took to trawler-based fishing. Because of that, better mechanised fishing happened. We were also doing mechanised fishing. But the Karnataka fishermen built huge mechanised boats of 500 CC to 700 CC engine power,” Dhond said.
“They started using huge destructive nets for mass scale fishing. Till then, trawling was doing very well in Goa. They started travelling to Goa and Maharashtra. So they subsequently exploited and destroyed our fishing,” he said.
“We had around 300 trawlers out of which 250 were small and 50 were big ones. So once this happened, our trawling business started subsequently reducing,” he added.
“The profitability shrunk and we now at the moment not even 20 small trawlers are working. So out of 200, now there are not even 20 boats working. Nearly 100 boats have already been scrapped. So, we are left with no option but to go for bigger boats,” Dhond added.
He said that the fishermen of Goa have been repeatedly telling the government to stop these big boats entering into Goan waters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, gave his nod to fishermen in the State. So, now big trawlers from Gujarat also started coming into Goa. So, we have been attacked from the south as well as from the north.
The other issue that needs attention is the LED fishing. There has been a ban on LED fishing. But in reality, this ban has been only a lip service and on paper. The ban really never really happened in the way it should have been. Then very soon a lot of boats started coming in with LED lights from outside and started fishing. Now the issue is, has the ban been really effective or it has remained as a lip service?
“I would not like to comment on it because the issue is court and the matter is sub judice. At least I’m not using LED gear. I know of the fact that Panjim jetty boats are not doing it,” he said.
When asked whether the big trawlers enter into areas of traditional ramponkars, Dhond said that small trawlers have reduced.
“Now, out of 115 trawlers, 85 are newly constructed. They have got huge draughts. They cannot go anywhere and their nets are also big. So they cannot be casted in 15-20 metres. You have to go at least outside 40 m. So, if you have to go outside 40 m, they cannot be troublesome to traditional fishermen. So normally, when we go out, there are few trawlers which are there,” he said.
“But what has happened, we have requested government to coordinate the matter, to separate the areas of fishing. This has to be done by the government. Somebody from the administration has to do it. We cannot stop anyone from operating in a particular area. That won’t be fair on our part,” the president of the Goa Purse Seine Trawler Owners Association added.
Now the next question is about the whole issue of big trawlers coming in from outside. How does one stop them?
“If you go into the no entry zone, traffic police stops you and issues challan. So, there should be some mechanism which should be put in place which penalise these trawlers entering into our waters unchecked. Somebody has to monitor the situation and take necessary action. That can be only done by the Fisheries department. I individually as mechanised trawler or a traditional trawler cannot do it. Otherwise there would be conflict and cause a law and order issue,” Dhond said.
He reiterated that the system to take over system and put a checking mechanism in place.
But the question is that you know when this fight happens against LED, when the fight happens against the big trawlers or when the fight happens against Goan fish being sucked out, there is a feeling that the big trawler owners and ramponkars are not together in this fight. It seems that the each side is fighting individually. The collective voice of all fishermen is missing. Rather, there is just one group speaking for the fishermen. Are the fishermen speaking in different voices?
“Yeah I do agree. I also agree that there is some kind of mistrust, which has always been the case in last 50 years. It is not that it happened in last four to five years or because of LED or because of other things. That has been the case for last five decades because, there earlier was small space where we could explore and they were saying that it is our area as well. That is the reason there has been differences,” he said.
But right now we have gone beyond all the way to the high seas, going to other States. So, there’s no real clash. But at the same time, there is scope for greater cooperation. There can be consensus, he added.
Giving his opinion on this burning issue, senior social activist Anthony D’Silva said that this issue can be split into three components.
“Let’s say, I belong to OBC caste. But I call myself as a traditional fisherman. So I will talk and put the traditional part in the second level. They have a different level playing field right now,” D’Silva said.
“I would say that fishing has always been a way of life. Because, I remember when we were young, it was the question of making money out of the fish was never a priority. What remains, we take home and what still remains we sell it. Most of the time, it used to be a barter system. I would say it was the way of life and we lived a happy life,” D’Silva said.
“We lived under the sky as our roof. You know, anytime we went, we knew we would get fish, we would just go to catch it and come back. It was that easy. But as days went by, I found that things started deteriorating and started threatening our existence. If I am not mistaken, somewhere in 1969-70, I remember seeing the first trawler as a young boy,” he said.
He reminisced that the presence of two trawlers in his village - Napoleon Associated Fisheries and then there was Queen of Amelie.
“So these are the two trawlers and they were very big thing for us. It was a society. A group of people would come together and own one boat. Today, one person owns 100 boats. So it has become very difficult. Now what has happened is that the river which was full of life, was like Jordan river,” he said.
“At one time River Sal was so vibrant. Today, I fail to recognise whether it’s the same river or Godavari or something else. It has becomes so difficult to live with this fact. In spite of undertaking dredging to increase the depth, nothing much has changed,” he said.
D’Silva said that the dredging work has been a sham. “It’s lip service, nothing else. Lift the sand from here put it over there. So our traditional fishermen who were there, have moved out for better pastures. Some have either gone to foreign countries for better jobs or taken up some other high paying commercial activity,” he said.
“Like, I’m a teacher. My father used to do fishing and I used to go with him as a young boy. Today I don’t go for fishing. So that change has come in. One is bound in self-limitations,” the activist said.
“But there’s also another problem. When we work the whole day and when I notice that my neighbour earns 10 times more than what I’m earning by doing this hard labour work, and there’s no binding of time – you go any time of the day, then money becomes a bigger factor than having fish at home. Sometimes, my own cousins won’t have fish at home, but they will sell all the fish they have got,” D’Silva said.
“So, it has become very difficult today and in that our own brothers are affected. I’m not talking about Karnataka or Maharashtra. We have enemies within our State. I’m not talking about them specifically. Our enemies within our State are our own brothers, who are doing fishing on a bigger level like boats,” he said.
Explaining the term enemies, he said that certain persons are considered as foes because they intrude into our territory knowingly. If it is unintentional, then I can understand. Unintentional would be when someone has drifted because of some natural calamity.
“See, how can such big boats, with all gadgets on board, just drift away mistakenly? How is it a mistake when a boat with more than 10 people working on board comes within 200-300 m? Whether it is a person with bull trawling or Purse Seine or with LED lights, one can easily know who had entered int our waters intentionally,” he said.
“Now, LED lights have become a final nail in the coffin, basically because there’s no limit on that. There are so many loopholes and these loopholes have created more enmity, which they agree. The trust between both the parties as such has been broken,” he said.
“One can’t escape from this issue of LED lights by calling the matter sub judice. Even if it is sub judice, it doesn’t mean I cannot talk about it. I can always give information on it. What happens is, these LED boats will keep generators and then they’ll say no generators are allowed. So, then they’ll take out another loophole. They’ll say we want the generator, because in case the engine fails, the lights could be put on as emergency,” he said.
“See, greed has no end. It was maybe 50 Watts yesterday. You can exploit loopholes. We are looking at a mechanism which can balance this thing. But the total mechanism in the State has failed,” he said.
It is clear that unregulated fishing is spelling a doom for the fishermen and the people of Goa. Unless the government steps in with some strict measures, our favourite fish platter could become a memory from distant past.
