TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The three-day Aqua Goa mega fish festival 2014 got underway at Navelim on Friday, with Governor Bharat Vir Wanchoo sounding a word of caution to the stakeholders to keep the environmental concerns in mind while planning further growth and development of the fisheries sector.
“The hazards of over-fishing should always be kept in view by all those who have taken to fishing as an occupation. Sustainable development should be the underlying philosophy and approach in our developmental activities. We need to take care to ensure that the existing stock is not depleted by indiscriminate fishing and adoption of irrational fishing methods”, the governor said after inaugurating the Aqua festival in the presence of Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado, MLAs Rajan Naik and Benjamin D’Silva, Secretary Fisheires, Neeraj Semwal, Fisheries Director Sharmila Monteiro, District Collector Venancio Furtado and the Sarpanchas of Navelim constituency.
The governor re-emphasised that eagerness to exploit natural resources, including fish from the sea, rivers and other water bodies, should be counter balanced with the need to maintain and preserve the eco-system.
In his address, the fisheries Minister said the mega event will provide information about underwater life, coupled with entertainment, competitions & exhibitions. He said the event will help students to get familiar with fish world, the commodity which Goans treasure the most.
Live fish, besides dry fish was available at the exhibition for sale. The festival is being organised in collaboration with the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB), Hyderabad.
