Marine species dying along Chennai coast due to unethical fishing

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

Two whales, 12 dolphins and 464 sea turtles have died along the Chennai and Kanchipuram coast due to lack of enforcement of Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation Act which mandates trawl fishing to be carried five nautical miles from shoreline.

TREE Foundation’s Supraja Dharini says the number may be much more as these are recording done by her foundation which is supported by the state forest department.

Interestingly, TREE foundation states that it has been recording unusual number of cetacean (dolphins, whales and porpoises) and sea turtles stranding especially from December 2013 along the Chennai and Kancheepuram coast. Interestingly, there has also been recording of 464 sea turtles along the Nagapattinam coast.

 Zoological Survey of India and chief marine biologist, Chennai station, P Dhandapani told Express attribute the deaths of cetaceans to gill net fishing. He says the fishermen should fish in deeper water rather than focussing on shallow waters. He says during fishing they catch everything in the net and not dispose of any of the living things that they don’t want. He says the biggest threat to the cetaceans is through ghost nets, the nets that are discarded by the fishing boats. “These entangle the sea mammals,” he says.

Interestingly, in almost all the cases, the dolphins, whales and turtles have died due to accidental by-catch by trawlfisher boats or due to entanglement in fishing nets.

Interestingly, fishermen agree about the threat to marine ecology due to bottom trawling and gill net fishing. Approximately 800 species of elasmobranchs, teleosts, crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms are taken by trawls, and at least 300 species contribute to the fishery.

Supraja says the government should also bring in a regulation on the mesh size. Those manufacturing such nets should be made to follow it,” she says.

She says the government should also send in a notice to fishing net manufacturing companieson the size of gill nets to protect the sea turtles and sea mammals.

M D Dayalan, president of Indian Fishermen Association, says that, ““We know it is also dangerous for the environment but then the changeover to hook and line and other nets should be done step by step. Government should bear the cost of ship modification besides incentivizing deep sea fishing.”