The fishing communities have sought the intervention of the Prime Minister to constitute a committee to study availability of fish resources before issuing permits to companies and vessels for fishing in the high seas.
Paul Rajan Mampilly and Joseph Xavier Kalapurackal, President and General Secretary of Federation of Fishing Boats and Fishery Industries of Kerala pointed out that the committee should have experts from among the traditional fishing community, who have unmatched calibre and expertise to fish in any weather conditions.
The government is reported to be in the process of issuing permits for high sea fishing to companies and big vessels to harness the fish resources from the deep sea. The present arrangement of issuing permits to the existing fishing boats is on the recommendations of study of availability of fish resources in sea waters prior to 2000.
Currently, there are about 3 lakh fishing boats of various sizes operating in the deep sea. If optimum catch for every boat is visualised some 96,000 boats are only required. Hence the volume of fish resources in sea waters and the catch capability in the form of catch brought to shore have to be studied before embarking on issuing permits to companies and vessels.
As there was no study of the resources available in seawaters in the changed weather conditions after 2000, the need of the hour is to appoint a committee of experts to get deep into the availability of fish wealth and the requirement of fishing vessels to be pooled into water.
uniform price tag
The Union also urged the government to keep a uniform price tag for consumer pumps and retail pumps in marine outlets selling fuel to fishing boats . There are two types of diesel outlets in marine areas that sell diesel at different rates and there is a wider price difference, leading to overcrowding and delays in fuel filling. Many boats could not venture out for fishing in the early hours due to overcrowding.
Published on May 5, 2026