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.
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.