KOCHI: A seminar organised by the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT) and the Society of Fisheries Technologists here on Saturday concluded with a call for legislation to control juvenile incidence, measures to implement the ‘minimum legal mesh size’ and use of gear-based technology.
The seminar, on the topic Mitigating Juvenile Incidence in Fishing: the Way Forward, was inaugurated by Kerala Fisheries Director S Karthikeyan. “The technologies used for bycatch reduction should make economic sense to the fishermen,” he said. The seminar was organised after landing of low-value bycatch in trawl fisheries increased from 14 per cent in 2008 to 25 per cent in 2011.
It is reported the target catch forms only 25-30 per cent in shrimp trawls, and the rest is either discarded or brought to the shore for sale. “About 1.2 million tonnes of ‘discards’ remain unreported in the country’s small-scale and commercial trawl fisheries. The estimated annual loss due to juvenile fishing by motorised and mechanised vessels is about $19,445 million,” said fisheries scientists.
“Use of non-legal mesh sizes; non-compliance with spatial and/or temporal restrictions; and increased capacity both in terms of vessel number; size and power are the main reasons for high incidence of juveniles in catches. Though various technical measures with respect to gear and restrictions are in place for reducing negative impacts of fishing systems, their adoption is very limited,” said the scientists.