VIJAYAWADA: Expressing shock and anguish over the bloody conflict between traditional small fishing communities and those fishing with ring seines made of smaller mesh size nets and equipped with sonar fish finders, National Platform for Small Scale Fish Workers (NPSSFW) demanded constitution of a commission with the participating of small and traditional fishing communities to assess the situation including availability of fish stock, sustainable fishing and the livelihood priorities.
In a press release, NPSSFW convener Pradip Chatterjee and Democratic Traditional Fishers Workers Forum general secretary D Pal said with over-fishing by mechanized boats, the share of small-scale traditional fishing communities has dwindled from more than 85 per cent of the total marine catch in 1960 to less than 18 per cent in 2019-20. Such a situation in Kerala saw sharp decline of Oil Sardines after 2012.