Port Blair, Feb 28: For the second time this week activists from the Greenpeace ship MY Esperanza exposed illegal fishing practices within the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone, off theAndaman Islands coast.
Greenpeace claims that tuna long liners, Balaji No. 5, 6 and 9, were in violation of the Letter of Permit (LoP) scheme, being registered concurrently inTaiwanandIndia.
“The LoP scheme allows foreign vessels to fish within the Indian EEZ, provided they have an exclusive Indian registration and Indian owner. Greenpeace informed the Coast Guards and the Ministry of Agriculture of these violations,” Areeba Hamid, Oceans Campaigner onboard the Esperanza informed media in a press release today.
The fishing sector in theAndaman Islands, including traditional fishers have strongly opposed the scheme on the grounds that until now there has been no effective system to monitor the operations of LoP vessels.
“Fishermen assert of various instances of competition of local fisheries for both space and resources. Reports from various fisher unions, especially around Port Blair, suggest that the operation by Thai and Taiwanese fishing vessels in their waters has impacted the livelihoods of several fishermen. This racket is aided by shell companies inIndiathat facilitate the so called Indian registration of these vessels. All three vessels were ostensibly owned by an Indian seafood company but evidence obtained by Greenpeace proves that they are controlled by a Taiwanese company called Long Wang Chang,” Hamid claimed.
The Oceans Campaigner of Greenpeace informed that a LoP vessel like Balaji No.5 catches about 60-80 tons of tuna every season worth half a million USD in international markets.
Currently there are 79 licensed vessels operating in the Indian waters. In return they pay 200USD as licensing fees to the Ministry of Agriculture. Public records of the taxes paid by these vessels in previous years do not exist.
These vessels are also allowed to transship their catch—a practice that encourages underreporting since it is self- regulated. This means that they never land any of their catch inIndiathus making it impossible to track.
“This free for all attitude towards fishing for lucrative species like tuna in our waters will surely lead to a total collapse of fisheries inIndialike it already has in industrial fishing nations likeTaiwan. Poor formulation, regulation and implementation of the LoP have made the Indian EEZ an attractive alternative fishing ground. This robbery has been happening right under the government’s nose for years and no action has been taken till date”, Hamid added.
According to Greenpeace the LoP scheme has become a scam at the cost ofIndia’s oceans and the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people dependent on them.
“Greenpeace’s investigations on this issue highlight the broader systemic failure of the Indian government when it comes to the management of its seas,” Hamid added.
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