Challenging the Centre’s 61-day ban on fishing on the West Coast that begins on June 1, fishing unions in Kerala have decided to continue fishing, including in the waters beyond the State’s 12-nautical mile territorial waters, until June 15.

The unions contend that the time-tested 47-day monsoon trawling ban in Kerala, the first State in the country to have put in place such a fishing holiday for conservation of fishery resources, should not be replaced with the new 61-day ban.

'Unscientific' ban The dozen-odd fishing unions as well as the Fisheries Coordination Committee, which is a forum of several unions, have decided to defy the ban as they hold that the 61-day total ban on fishing is “unscientific, unfair, unreasonable and ignores monsoon and fishing conditions.”

Fisheries Minister K Babu said that Kerala would stick to the 47-day ban.

The Union Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday came out with a press statement reiterating its intention to implement the 61-day ban. This has triggered the unions’ ire and in order to force the Centre to drop the new regulation, which also bans fishing in the 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone that lies beyond the State’s territorial waters, they are taking the path of agitation from Thursday.

A series of agitations, dharnas and marches will be held in Kochi, the ‘fisheries capital of the country,’ will follow.

Uniform regime

The Centre had recently notified a uniform fishing ban regime for better implementation and coordination of the fisheries resource management and conservation.

The ban would begin in the western coastal states on June 1 and in the eastern coastal states on April 15. The Centre allows individual States to follow their own calendar for the time being with a caveat that they should fall in line within five years.

While all the States and UTs have agreed to the 61-day ban, Kerala opposed it and pressed for continuing with the 47-day monsoon trawl ban.

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