Notice to 49 boat owners who are fishing with lights

Notice to 49 boat owners who are fishing with lights

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Jan 19, 2018: Responding to queries after members of the Malpe Fishermen’s Deep Sea Trawl Boat Association and Tandelara Sangha laid siege to the office of the Deputy Director of Fisheries at the Malpe Fisheries Harbour; B. Parshwanath, Deputy Director of Fisheries, says the department has issued notice to 49 boats doing fishing using lights and told them to remove the generators used for the purpose within 10 days, as per the directions of Udupi DC.

Both the association and the forum have alleged that purse seine boats were catching fish using lights, in violation of the rules.  Parshwanath said that at a meeting chaired by the Udupi DC Priyanka Mary Francis, on January 12, she had directed officials to take action against boats using lights for fishing in the sea. Accordingly, officials inspected the boats and issued notice, he said.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Deep Sea Trawl Boat Association say there was no point in the department imposing fines of Rs. 5,000 on each boat using lights or stopping diesel subsidy when the boats do business running into lakhs of rupees.