Kakinada: Fishing boat owners oppose vessels with higher power
Owners of lower-speed mechanised boats complain that due to the speed boats venturing into the sea, they were not able to get good catch.
KAKINADA: Some boat owners are worried ad are protesting to some others upgrading their boat engines from 108 hp to 280 hp. Boat owners who are not able to upgrade to such capacity plan to launch an agitation to demand the government not to allow such upgraded boats into the sea. The lower-speed mechanized boat owners have been on strike for the past two days.
They have stopped their ventures into the sea. It is learnt, however, that the speed boat owners did go out to sea for fishing. Owners of lower-speed mechanised boats complain that due to the speed boats venturing into the sea, the low-speed boats were not able to get good catch as the entire catch is being disturbed and the fish is caught in the nets of speed boats. Due to the speed boats, their livelihood is being severely affected.
According to sources, there were 350 mechanized boats in Kakinada coast with a horse power of 108 to 140. Out of these, around 70 boats have upgraded their horse power up to 280 to 350 which are getting more catch.
"If we upgrade our low-speed mechanised boats, we should invest between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh. At present, the fishermen are suffering from lack of catch in the sea. Under these circumstances, a majority of the fishermen cannot invest such huge amounts," said the Kakinada Mechanized Boat Owners Welfare Association president Voleti Giri. He said that despite their appeals, some of the members of the association are going for high-speed engines and they are getting more catch in less time by travelling faster. On the other hand, the fish we get is not even enough to meet our operational cost, he said, adding that according to previous instructions by the state government, boats with higher speed engines should venture in the sea beyond 23 kilometres. But, the speed boat owners are some rimes venturing within 50 meters in the sea.
He said that the association submitted a representation to fisheries officials who told them to hold talks between low-speed boat engine owners and the association members within three days.
Meanwhile, the fisheries department Joint Director P.Koteswara Rao said that the same row has been taken place in Visakhapatnam also and speed boat engine owners stopped their ventures there. He said that the issue would be sorted out soon in Kakinada also.