Team Herald
VASCO: The Indian Coast Guard Goa Unit DIG Manoj Baadkar on Monday claimed that fishermen venturing into the sea, post fishing ban need to be extra cautious as the monsoon seems to be very vigorous this year.
Addressing the press at IGC head quarters at Mormugao Harbour, Baadkar stressed on safe fishing practices and safety guidelines which the fishermen should compulsorily follow before and while carrying out fishing at sea.
“Though we have requested the Directorate of Fisheries to re-sensitise the fishing community on various safety guidelines issued by us with the belief that the same would be communicated to the fishermen community, still we decided to stress on the few facts which every fishermen should follow to avoid any eventuality of mishap”, he said.
While listing out the few key aspects, which the fishermen community needs to follow, Baadkar claimed that majority of safety guidelines which one needs to follow is not done by the fishermen in Goa.
“We have asked them to carry adequate life saving equipment (life jackets) on board as almost 20-odd crew members go out for fishing on one trawler however, they keep merely five to six life jackets, which is unsafe. Similarly, we have asked them to share the information, especially on seeing any unknown boats/vessel at sea on our toll free number 1554 during any eventuality at sea. We have also asked them to carry biometric cards and boat documents as on many occasions we don’t see crew carrying such documents while fishing,” he said.
He said, “Goa government has started giving 75 per cent subsidy on personal locator beacon and over 300 boats in Goa today are having such facility.”
We feel that even other trawler owners should come forward and go for such useful device. Also we have asked the boat crew to carry temporary repair kits, extra fuel and ration, flash light with additional batteries besides first aid kit, however what is more important is the seaworthiness of the boats as after registration, no one checks if the vessel is fit for fishing or not thus we feel that likewise any other vessel including ships, these fishing boats also needs to be certify by the same department, which registers these boats”.
Baadkar further appealed to the crew of fishing trawlers/canoes to provide rescue assistance to other fishermen under distress situation as mostly the fishing crew members don’t go to rescue of others. He also suggested that the fishermen should encourage group fishing, which would be helpful during emergency situation faced by one boat.
