Panel mulls merging east, west coast fishing bans

Chennai: A technical committee is looking into the possibility of changing the fishing ban period along the east coast to coincide with that on the west coast, said L Murugan, Union minister of state for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying. Addressing the press after inauguration of the two-day ‘National Fish Farmers Meet 2023’ near Mamallapuram on Monday, Murugan said several representations had been received from fishermen, especially belonging to TN, that they were putting out to sea for less than six months in a year due to the onset of the southwest monsoon soon after the end of the fishing ban.The technical committee will deliberate on the possibilities and make an announcement regarding changing the east coast ban that currently starts on April 14 and ends on June 15.The Union government is giving a thrust to the fisheries sector since brining it under a separate ministry. Earlier, it was under the agriculture ministry. “In the last nine years, the government allocated 38,500 crore for the sector. The number of startups in the sector before 2014 was only 500. Now there are more than one lakh,” he said.In the current financial year, fisheries exports, which includes prawn and shrimps, are expected to touch 174 lakh tonnes, he said, adding that the ministry is not planning for the next five years or 10 years. “It has prepared plans for the next 25 years by which time the country will be at the top in fish exports in the world.” The two-day meet was inaugurated jointly by Union minister of fisheries Parshottam Rupala, ministers of state Sanjeev Kumar Balyan and Murugan. Secretaries and commissioners from across the country participated.