Fishers raise fears over draft guidelines to regulate fishing in high seas

Fisher unions and fisheries professionals have voiced concern over the draft guidelines to regulate fishing by Indian flagged fishing vessels in the high seas (for areas beyond the EEZ of 200 nautical miles).

Their fear relates to the current guidelines that encourage large corporates capital investments in the fisheries sector.

“We are not in favour of allowing partnership firms, private and public limited companies, corporations as players in the fishing sector when the sector is already overcapitalised with traditional/existing fishers. This will seriously impact the livelihood of current fishers”, a diverse group of concerned citizens said in a letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying (MoFAHD).

The current guidelines contravene Article 5 of the UNFSA (UN Fish Stocks Agreement of which India is a party) which requires coastal states and states fishing on the high seas to ensure that the measures they adopt ensure the long-term sustainability of fish stocks and are based on best scientific evidence available.

Guidelines not in conformity

IOTC Scientific Committee in 2021 noted that the increase in catches in recent years has substantially increased in the pressure on the Indian Ocean Yellowfin tuna stock, resulting in fishing mortality. Therefore, the catches need to be significantly reduced to realistically achieve the scientific committee recommendations. Maldives is proposing to reduce the total catches above 20 per cent to recover the stocks with a probability of greater than 50 per cent in 2030.

The current guidelines, according to fishers, are not in agreement with the IOTC resolution which is effective from January 1, 2023. Therefore the provision of allowing partnership firms, private/public limited companies and corporations has to be deleted from the guidelines.

They also did not agree to the license fee prescribed and demanded to reduce it substantially without burdening the small-scale fishing sector.

Another major resource harvested from the northwest Arabian Sea is the oceanic squid which is targeted by fishing fleets from China. More than 300 large vessels target this resource using squid jiggers and light lift nets during October to May. CMFRI has advised the government about targeting this resource by modifying Indian small scale mechanised vessels, but so far no specific schemes to encourage this has been formulated by MoFAHD. The draft guidelines have not mentioned anything specific in this regard.

“We urge the MoFAHD to completely modify the draft guidelines keeping in mind India’s international obligations and its protective role of the Indian small scale fishers. This guideline is necessary considering the number of Indian fishing vessels fishing in areas outside Indian EEZ without any protection or security from the government”, the letter said.