[Reader-list] Centre's revised guidelines for deep sea fishing anger fishers

[T Peter]

Centre's revised guidelines for deep sea fishing anger fishers

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/centre-s-revised-guidelines-deep-sea-fishing-angers-fishers

The Central government has issued revised guidelines for deep sea fishing
by big ships in the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ)--an area of the
sea between 22 km and 370 km from the coast, beyond the territorial waters.

The guidelines permit deep sea fishing with letter of permission (LoP) from
the Centre.

The guidelines were issued even as fisher communities in 10 coastal states
are agitating against an expert committee report that recommended giving
letter of permission for more big vessels in EEZ.

*Invitation to joint ventures*

The guidelines were issued by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying
and Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and appeared on the
ministry's website on November 28. The guidelines are for big vessels with
a length 15 metre or more that can be owned or acquired by Indian
entrepreneurs of the country. Joint ventures with up to 49 per cent foreign
investments are allowed to apply for permission. The letter of permit will
be valid for a period of five years.

The revised guidelines have further angered fishers organizations, already
holding strong protests against the Central government-appointed expert
committee report, which recommended letter of permission for more big
ships. "For the past many years we have been highlighting how deep sea
fishing by big ships in Indian waters is affecting the livelihood of
hundreds of thousands of  fishers who use traditional, motorised and
mechanised boats to catch fish," says Vincent Jain, chief executive officer
of the Association of  Deep Sea Going Artisanal Fishermen (ADSGAF),
Thoothoor, Tamil Nadu. It seems that the Centre has accepted the
recommendations of the Meenakumari Committee report even when states such
as Kerala have sent views against the report, he adds.

*What expert panel recommended*

The committee, headed by B Meenakumari, deputy director general of
fisheries division of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),
submitted its report on August 20 this year. The committee was constituted
after Prime Minster Narendra Modi's call for a "Blue Revolution" in July.

The eight-member committee was asked to review the Comprehensive Marine
Fishing Policy 2004 and make recommendations for formulating a new fishing
policy for the country. The committee had recommended that marine resources
in the territorial sea (up to 22 km from the coast) have already been
exploited indiscriminately and hence fishing in this region should be
banned. Further, the committee recommended that parts of the sea, between
200 and 500 metre depth, should be reserved as a buffer zone. This,
according to the committee, will replenish the marine resources in the
territorial waters as well as in the deep sea on the either side of the
proposed buffer zone.

Besides these two recommendations, the expert committee also recommended
that fishing by big vessels should be encouraged in the EEZ. The panel
estimated the resource potential of the EEZ at 4.41 million tonnes and
suggested its optimal utilisation. To achieve optimum utilisation of the
resources from this area, the panel recommended 1,178 deep-sea fishing
vessels be deployed. This includes the existing 908 and additional 270
vessels. The panel also suggested that joint ventures with foreign
companies and transfer of technology be taken up for exploiting the waters
with more than 500 m depth.

*Fishers pushed out from coast, sea*

Fishers' organisations point out that the recommendations are detrimental
to the interests of hundreds of thousands of fishers in the coastal states.
"The sea and the coast are being removed from the traditional fishing
community slowly," points out T Peter of Kerala Swatantre Matsya Thozhilali
Federation, a trade union of small-scale artisanal fishers.

The coastal areas are being invaded by the tourism industry, real estate
and other development sectors, displacing the traditional fishing
communities. Now, fishers are being removed from territorial waters and
EEZ."  The stance of the successive governments at the Centre is the same
regarding fishing by big foreign ships. Indiscriminate fishing by big ships
not only displaces traditional communities but destroys marine resources
and ecology, he adds.

The fisher organisations point out that the report contradicts the
recommendations of P Murari Committee that opposed issuance of further
licences to foreign fishing vessels. The Murari Committee had recommended
that the existing licences of foreign fishing vessels should not be
renewed. According to Charles George, president of Kerala's Matsya
Thozhilali Aikya Vedi (forum of fisher's unions), the committee concealed
the fact that out of 908 big vessels fishing in the sea, only about 70 have
letter of permission from the Central government. All others are engaged in
illegal fishing, he adds.  Further, these big vessels are permitted to
export their catch from the sea itself without making a landing on the
shore.

Fishers organisations in Tamil Nadu are angered by the panel's observation
that the traditional fishing communities do not have technical know-how in
fishing in waters beyond the depth of 500 metre. "The report recommends
bringing in trainers by paying them to build up the capacity of the Indian
fisher communities. This is a gross under-estimation of the deep sea
fishing capacity of the traditional fishermen in places such as Thoothoor
who venture up to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in boats beyond a
depth of 500 metre and stay in the sea for days at a stretch. They have
been engaged in deep sea fishing for generations," says Jain. (Read 'Shark
in a soup' <http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/shark-soup>)


*Fishers not consulted*
The committee consists of only scientists and officials and does not have
any representative from the fisher communities. "The recommendations were
shaped without consulting us," points out George.

The fishers organisations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and other
states had organised a boat rally last month, starting from Mangalore in
Karnataka and ending at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, urging to protect
India' marine resources from being plundered by big joint venture  vessels.
"We're going to intensify our agitations in the coming days," says Peter.