PURSE SEINE FISHING - ENVIRONMENT
News:
What will become of traditional fishermen if purse seine nets take all their
catch, SC asks Centre
What's in the news?
● The
Supreme Court asked the Centre what would happen to the small and traditional
fishermen in the State of Tamil Nadu if “affluent” purse seine fishermen on mechanized
boats are allowed to operate beyond the 12 nautical mile territorial waters and
end up catching hundreds of tonnes of fish.
● Tamil
Nadu Government said purse seine fishing kills fishing stock and is a danger to
the environment, leaving traditional fishermen operating within the territorial
waters on their catamarans with nothing.
● The
court is hearing a petition filed by Fishermen Care to stay a Tamil Nadu Government
order of February 17, 2020, which had banned the large nets used to catch
schools of fish in the deep waters of the sea.
Purse Seine Fishing:
● Purse
Seine fishing is used in the open ocean
to target dense schools of single-species pelagic (midwater) fish like tuna and
mackerel.
● A
vertical net ‘curtain’ is used to surround the school of fish, the bottom of
which is then drawn together to enclose the fish.
● Purse
seine fishing is popular on India’s
western coasts.
● It is linked to concerns
about the decreasing stock of small, pelagic shoaling fish such as sardines, mackerel,
anchovies and trevally on the western coasts.
● The
scientific community argues that climatic conditions, including the El Nino
phenomenon, are responsible for the declining catch of such fish in the last 10
years.
● However,
fishermen using traditional methods have placed the blame squarely on the rise
in purse seine fishing.
Advantages:
● Purse-seine
fishing in open water is generally considered to be an efficient form of fishing.
● It
has no contact with the seabed and can have low levels of by catch.
● It
can also be used to catch fish congregating around fish aggregating devices.
● It
is used in the open ocean to target dense schools of single-species pelagic
(midwater) fish like tuna and mackerel.
Disadvantages:
● Purse
seining is a non-selective fishing
method that captures everything that it surrounds, including sea turtles
and marine mammals.