VASCO: The Goa Fishing Boat Owners’ Association (GFBOA) has alleged that traditional fishermen have violated the fishing ban by using mechanized canoes and demanded that the Fisheries Department should ensure that no mechanised canoes be allowed to operate during the ban period.
Addressing newsmen in Vasco on Monday, the GFBOA members claimed that all these years, the people from fishing industry have been blaming trawler owners for mechanised fishing and for the fish shortage. However, the same people failed to understand that it is the mechanised canoes that use the ban period for taking up “destructive fishing” at sea, that too during the breeding season.
“We had to break our silence, as we trawler owners, have been duly complying with the ban period. However, at the same time, many mechanised boats have been fishing in Goan waters thereby violating the ban during the breeding period. What irks us more is the fact that the Fisheries Department, which is nodal agency to look into such violations, has been reluctant to take any serious action on such violations for reasons best known to them,” said GFBOA president Augusto Fernandes.
