Banned pelagic trawling back along Kerala coast

Trawling with pelagic net causes total damage to fish, other marine animals

Banned pelagic fishing nets are being widely used along the Kerala coast, especially along the southern belt, causing serious damage to marine wealth of the Arabian Sea.

According to sources, this also causes a drop in catch by the traditional fishermen. Recently, the state fisheries department officials raided a net weaving yard at Munambam, near here. Trawling with pelagic net was banned in the country way back in 1980s as it causes total damage to fish and other marine animals.

Fishing boat workers use these nets  in leading fishing harbours like  Munambam, Kochi, Kollam  and Kozhikode.  However, according to law, they should use trawl nets in deep seas -- 100 km away from the coast.

Over 12,000 fishing boats operate in Kerala and most do not have valid licenses from the fisheries department. According to sources close to this business, more than 50  per cent of the boats now opt for pelagic type of fishing.  

In pelagic fishing,  two boats are used to catch fish, which is commonly known as pair trawling. In this style,  mouth of the net is wide opened  and all  living objects in a vast area  are caged in  the net and killed.  

According to Jossey, a Munambam based boat owner,  this might cause damage to the infants and eggs. He said 20-30 per cent of grown up fish should be alive in the sea for the existence of different types of fish. But due to heavy rains this  monsoon, most of the fish varieties are seen along the coastal side and fishing boats are now working there. This has affected the catches of traditional fishermen.

He alleged that even traditional fishermen widely use  fishing nets like Ringsean and Persean which are banned in shallow waters. These nets also causes serious damage to the marine wealth along the sea coast.

Last Saturday, a  team of officials from the fisheries department and Marine Enforcement seized three large pelagic nets from a net-making unit near the Munambam fisheries harbour as part of an ongoing drive to curb the practice of trawling in shallow waters within 22 km off the coast of Kerala.

The nets were meant for bull trawling, were brought from Mangalore in Karnataka. The net weaving yard was raided following a tip-off from traditional fishermen.

According to Parameshwaran, assistant director -fisheries department, further raids would be conducted to curb over-exploitation of marine wealth. Pelagic  nets, which are four times bigger than normal nets, are used for trawling by attaching  to the  wenches  of  two boats. This type of fishing is done outside the territorial waters, mostly at areas with 120 metre depth or more and in a distance of 100 -250 km from the coast.  This is against the Kerala Marine Fishing Regulation Act- 1980, he said.

Normally the fishing boat workers abandon the eggs and infants since they have no commercial value at all. This causes pollution of sea and in turn causes environmental hazards too.