MARGAO: “Due to indiscriminate fishing we are today facing a fish famine as at many places there is no fish available for fishermen to harvest and as fishermen we have to think about this very seriously,” said Velibhai K Masani Chairman of Gujarat Fisheries Central Co-operative Association Ltd.
Speaking at the first West Coast Fishermen Conference at Margao today, he said the environment is getting degraded which is adversely affecting the marine fauna and stressed the need for responsible fishing even by the fishing community.
“We have fitted higher horsepower engines to our vessels and go deeper to fish without realising its ill-effects,” he said. Veljibhai cautioned against the line shipping that has emerged as a new trend in Gujarat.
“Over 50 trawlers go together and encircle a shoal of fish and harvest the fish without giving any opportunity for any fish to escape and this would result in the species getting depleted as we are not giving any chance for procreation,” he said.
Pointing out that the government bans fishing during the monsoon season when fish come to lay their roe, he argued that instead of waiting for government action, the ban should come naturally from the fishing community in their own interest as it gives the fish a chance to multiply.
Fishermen from seven states have come together to form the West Coast Fishermen and they include fishermen organisations from Gujarat, Daman, Diu, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
