AIFI opposes entry of Thai fishing vessels

"At present, the Indian deep sea fishing industry is in severe crisis. The size of the Indian fishery industry was reduced by 65 per cent due to the lack of catch in the last 10 years. If the government allows the huge and ultra-modern Thailand vessels at this juncture, the remaining trawler companies will have no alternative but to close their shutters. The government too will lose precious foreign exchange," Babu Rao, the president of AIFI, said.

Fishing reserves consist of mainly shrimps which are in high demand for exports. Shrimps have depleted significantly in the Indian waters due to over exploitation.

It is because of this reason, the Indian industry has been observing a 45-day fishing holiday in the east coast every year. Despite the fishing holiday, there is no improvement in the fishing reserves.

"During the current season the trawlers managed to get reasonable catch in the first three months. Over 35 per cent of the existing Indian trawlers are anchored at Visakhapatnam fishing harbour due to lack of catch,"Rao informed.

"There were 180 deep sea fishing vessels in the country some 15 years back. A majority of these were operated from the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour. Now the number had come down to 60. This is due to the unavailability of tiger shrimps in the Indian waters. Previously, each trawler had an average catch of 60 tonne of shrimp but now the catch quantity dropped to 20 tonne. Owing to this reason, many Indian trawler companies sent their vessels to other countries for fishing," he said.

Rao said that the Association of Indian Fishery Industry had submitted a project proposal for conversion of 30 per cent of the existing trawlers for the 'Tuna long lining project' to be implemented by the Indian-owned deep sea fishing vessels.

"We urged the centre to grant 50 per cent one-time capital subsidy of Rs 9.83 crore, and provide another Rs 9.83 crore from the technology development fund as soft loan to the 30 trawlers to enable the industry to take up this project for exploitation of Tuna resources in the Indian exclusive economic zone and Indian Ocean as well," he said.