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Trawlers defy court ban on fishing in Goa

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panjim

Over 1000 trawlers are defying an interim court order, banning mechanised boats from fishing till August 15 here.

The order was to provide breeding and spawning time for various species of fish.

The Marine Fishing Regulation (Amendment) Bill, 2000, which was unanimously passed by the state assembly, soon after the court order, by suspending all rules, has been returned by the governor, without his assent, as it contains 'incorrect provisions'.

The amendment not only legalises the reduced period of 54 days of a fishing ban from June 1 this year, but even bars courts from having jurisdiction over it, "notwithstanding anything contained in any law... and (also) notwithstanding proceedings in any court."

"I am not bothered whether it has become an act or not. The House is supreme and it has unanimously allowed us to enter the sea from July 25," said Opposition Congress legislator Churchill Alemao, a leading trawler owner himself. He said it was not necessary to obey the court order.

"The advocate general is studying the issue. But the clause barring the court from exercising its powers of review was not proper," admitted Chief Minister Francisco Sardinha. He also clarified that the government did not intend to have any confrontation with the court.

But he did not appear determined to implement the court order, by stopping the trawlers from entering the sea. "We will see what action we can take," he said, while accepting a suggestion that the Coast Guard could be used.

Alemao told journalists in Sardinha's presence that trawler owners would come out on the streets and turn Goa into a Bihar if their trawlers were seized.

Sardinha agreed with Alemao that the selective ban on mechanised boats was unjustified.

"It amply proves that legislators are meant to protect the interests of criminals," alleged Mathany Saldhana, general secretary of the All Goa Traditional Fishermen's Association.

He was furious as the trawlers are encroaching into a two-km area used by traditional fishermen.

The National Institute of Oceanography had recommended to the court that fishing by mechanised boats be banned from June 1 to August 31, the breeding and spawning period for fish.

A court hearing on a public interest litigation in this regard has been fixed for August 16.

A ban in neighbouring Maharashtra lasts till August 15, while it is till July 29 in Karnataka.

Sardinha does not dispute the traditional custom of a 90-day ban from the arrival of the monsoons, when Hindus begin fishing from Narli Pournima and Catholics from the feast of St Lawrence, which coincide. The practice was discontinued in the early '90s, resulting in a fish famine in Goa.

Though the government had issued a notification in February 1995 to impose the ban till August 31, the trawler lobby got it amended to July 24.

"Elected representatives have no concern about preserving fundamental aspects of nature," alleged Marcus Otilio Pinto de Santana, the petitioner, who has been proved right by scientists of the Goa-based NIO, the sole oceanography institute in the country.

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