The Zuari River in the Indian State of Goa is the scene of alleged illegal mechanized fishing activity, according to an urgent complaint lodged with authorities by the All-Goa Small Scale Responsible Fisheries Union earlier this month.
President Shaila D’Mello and secretary Laximan Mangueshkar of the Union claim that eight trawlers engaged in purse seine fishing, a type of illegal mechanized fishing, inside the river between 9:45 p.m. on May 9 and well past midnight at 12:30 a.m.
The complaint letter, which is addressed to the Director of the Department of Fisheries, the Captain of Ports (CoP), and the Superintendent of Police (SP) for Coastal Security, claims that attempts to report the violations to the Fisheries Control Room were unsuccessful because of a broken phone line.
As illegal fishing was taking place in the Zuari, the letter claimed that “all attempts to register complaints against mechanized fishing at the Fisheries Department control room proved futile as the phone was non-functional with a busy tone from 9.55 pm till 10.55 pm.”
According to the Union, there is a possibility that the phone receiver was purposefully left off the hook in order to avoid recording complaints regarding the illicit fishing activity. They have asked for immediate action, which includes setting up two more dedicated phone lines with night staff to deal with these kinds of complaints.
The letter refers to a breach of orders concerning mechanized fishing restrictions that are being considered by the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court. A copy of the complaint has been directed to the High Court’s Chief Justice.