മീനാകുമാരി കമ്മീഷൻ റിപ്പോർട്ട് ശുപാർശകൾ പരമ്പരാഗത മത്സ്യത്തൊഴിലാളികളെ എങ്ങനെ ബാധിക്കുന്നു. Comments on the Report of the Expert Committee Constituted for Comprehensive Review of the Deep Sea Fishing Policy and Guidelines Introduction 1. At the outset, we congratulate Dr. B Meenakumari, Deputy Director General (Fisheries) Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Chairperson, and other Members of the Expert Committee for producing the Report of the Expert Committee Constituted for Comprehensive Review of the Deep Sea Fishing Policy and Guidelines (hereafter referred to as the Report) that involves a tremendous amount of hard work. The Report—in four chapters ordered according to the terms of reference with an executive summary and introduction along with eight appendices— examines, probably for the first time, Indian marine fishing from a national, regional and global perspective. The Report embraces many aspects of Indian marine fishing using new databases and undertakes new analyses of fishing in the Indian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), hitherto un-attempted. In our comments we have dealt with TOR 1 and TOR 4 separately and TOR 2 and 3 together. We have also offered a few specific comments in relation to text and data towards the end of this note. TOR-1: Comprehensive Marine Fishing Policy, 2004 2. In the Report, we support the recommendation to set up a committee to formulate a new comprehensive marine fishing policy after undertaking broad-based consultations to ensure that the interests of all relevant stakeholders and interested parties are taken into account. We agree that an effective legislation for all types of fishing operations in the EEZ is relevant before developing a national fishing, or fisheries, policy. Such a committee should comprise members of in-depth understanding of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of fisheries as well as representatives of coastal States and UTs. 3. The terms of reference of the new committee to develop a national fisheries policy should be consistent with the recommendations made in section 2.0 review of CMFP, 2004 of this Report. These recommendations include: (i) to broaden the spatial scope of the policy to include both territorial waters and the EEZ; (ii) to ensure stakeholder consultation and participation in decision-making processes to ensure the protection of vulnerable and marginalized groups; (iii) to develop a national legislation for fishing in the EEZ; (iv) to address gender-related issues in fisheries; (v) to protect the rights of traditional fishers to coastal and marine fisheries resources; (vi) to define different categories of fishing; (vii) to seek coherence across fish production, fisheries conservation, management and fish consumption objectives; (viii) to develop criteria for mechanization and motorization of fishing vessels; (ix) to improve working and living conditions of fishers and fishworkers, both onboard and onshore; (x) to develop measures to comply with international legal instruments of relevance to trade in fish and fish products; (xi) to propose guidelines for monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) systems in marine fisheries; (xii) to consider co-management regimes in coastal and marine fisheries; (xiii) to manage fishing fleet movement from the territorial waters to the EEZ; (xiv) to promote infrastructure subsidies and to phase out capacity-enhancing subsidies; (xv) to improve fisheries governance and management towards greater accountability of all stakeholders; (xvi) to build up capacity of fisheries administrations; (xvii) to promote social security protection of fishing communities; and (xviii) to improve coordination with other relevant Ministries/Departments to improve welfare of fishers and fishing communities. 4. In addition, a comprehensive fisheries policy should examine how a value-chain approach to marine fisheries would be useful as well to look at fisheries issues from both supply-side and demand-side perspectives. Market access issues such as free trade agreements that include fish and fishery products; tariff and non-tariff issues related to fish trade such as sanitary and phytosanitary measures, as well as trade in fishing vessels, including hull, engine, gear; navigation, fish-finding and safety equipment; protection of traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights of traditional fishing communities are also relevant to be considered within the ambit of fisheries policy. The role of certification and ecolabelling in fish trade also would be pertinent from the perspective of meeting expectations of fish trade at different levels. Additional considerations of a national fisheries policy should include issues outside the scope of state legislation such as movement of fishing vessels and fishers. In the latter case, there is also very significant levels of inter-state migration of workers into fishing that are currently unregulated. 5. A new fisheries policy should also consider how inter-agency mechanisms could be set up to resolve inter-sectoral conflicts involving fishing and other uses of marine and coastal space, including conservation zones, as well as how to address pollution and degradation of the coastal and marine ecosystems that threaten fisheries, especially from decreased river water discharges. Many of the proposed changes in a new fisheries policy could be better addressed if it adopts a human rights-based approach to fisheries as enunciated under the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (See page 94 of the Report). The adoption of these SSF Guidelines was supported by India during the 31st Session of the Committee on Fisheries, Rome, in June 2014. TOR-2: To review existing guidelines for deep-sea fishing in EEZ TOR 3: To suggest full exploitation of catch potential in the Indian EEZ and international waters Commercial viability of LOP vessels 6. It is instructive to observe that in spite of various deep sea fishing--beyond territorial waters—policy initiatives since 1981 to introduce fishing vessels >20 m OAL in the Indian EEZ, their number keeps going down whilst vessels 20 m length. Given the consistent failure to attract tuna long liners and purse seiners of >20 metres length since the Charter Policy for deep sea fishing was initiated in 1981, it is high time to back horses for courses. Promote artisanal deep sea tuna fleet in the Indian EEZ/ABNJ 8. In this context, the Thoothoor artisanal fishermen appear to be most attractive option, particularly for the EEZ adjacent to the territorial sea along the western seaboard. They have the “technical skills and endurance to take up deep sea fishing” (page 36, second para of the Report). Table 20 of the Report makes it quite explicit that of the four oceanic fishing fleet (trawlers converted to long-liners, LOP vessels, Thoothoor deep sea vessels and the Visakhapatnam vessels), the artisanal fleet of Thoothoor shows the highest daily average catch per vessel (360 kg). This is, interestingly, higher than the daily average catch per vessel of converted trawlers and LOP vessels. The artisanal fleet caught 42,336 tonnes in 2012 and accounted for 71 per cent of the oceanic tuna landings, as against just 1991 tonnes landed by the LOP vessels, the same year (there are also pervasive problems of illegal transhipment and under-reporting of LOP catches). 9. Also, Table 13 of the Report shows that the Thoothoor deep sea going vessels seem to be fishing in both the EEZ and the high seas from the western seaboard. Thus, the Thoothoor artisanal fleet seem to belie the observation in the Report that adequate expertise or resources are lacking in India to exploit waters beyond 500 metre isobath, We would therefore recommend promoting artisanal deep sea going fishing vessels of Thoothoor to fish in the Indian EEZ and in the high seas, in place of promoting LOP vessels. The viability of Thoothoor vessels in the EEZ on the eastern seaboard also should be explored and confirmed along with trawler-converted long-liners along the eastern seaboard as well as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 10. In short, based on the analysis of LOP vessels provided in the Report, we are of the view that there is no need to import fishing vessels under joint ventures for tuna fishing in the Indian EEZ , especially considering the consistent poor record of all such initiatives in the past 33 years. Moreover, it is difficult to envisage introduction of LOP vessels in the absence of substantial subsidies, which might expose export of fish and fish products from these vessels to trade-related measures in tuna import markets. 11. We would also like to point out that contrary to what is observed on page 33 of the Report (last paragraph), vessels
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:23:52 +0000
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