KOLLAM: Despite trawling ban, the foreign trawlers seamlessly loot the fish resource off Kerala coasts. The government is still unsure of the quantity of fish they take away. The Kerala High Court had recently observed responding to a PIL demanding intervention to prevent foreign trawlers entering India's territorial waters that the Union government lacked the facility to determine the amount of fish they loot. The withdrawal of LoP (letter of permit) in its recent policy decision itself justifies the argument that the prevention of foreign trawlers was a failure.
The LoP was also misused by these trawlers, it was observed. “The fishermen very often see them here, and the government has not taken adequate steps to prevent the. They filter out our fish resource using most modern equipment including nets that span across kilometres,” T. Peter, National Fish Workers Forum general secretary, told DC. Though the LoP has been cancelled, there are several loopholes in the policy which permits private-public participation model.
The territorial sea demarcated by international sea boundary has a width of 200 nautical miles. The foreign vessels could pass the sea through the innocent passage as mentioned in international maritime rules. The Union agriculture ministry had submitted an affidavit that nearly 316 tonnes of fish were netted out on an annual basis by foreign trawlers during the years 2005-2015. The court has also ordered to constitute a special council to study the impact of such illegal trawling in the exclusive economic zone of the territorial waters.
