After the central government issued a notification banning fishing with LED lights and bull trawling, the state directorate of fisheries has started implementing the order by way of stringent inspections.However, there is just one patrol vessel to manage the jurisdiction of 12 nautical miles all over Goa.”We have moved a file for two more vessels and a staff of bosun, engineer, driver and junior deckhand,” a fisheries official told TOI on Tuesday.Following a demand by the Goa government, in November 2017, the Centre had ordered a ban on fishing with LED lights from zero to 200 nautical miles across India. The order to start inspections of fishing vessels “for use or installation of fishing gears such as LED lights, fish light attractors or other light equipment with or without generator landed/berthed on the jetties” was issued in December 2017. “Based on instructions of fisheries minister Vinod Palyekar, the existing portable cabin teams were asked to inspect fishing vessels. A weekly report of the same is compiled and sent to him. So far, we haven’t detected any violations,” the official said.A portable cabin was set up at each of the four jetties in 2016 to issue passes to fishing vessels and do necessary checks before they venture into the sea.The team comprises a fisheries officer and survey officers at the Vasco, Cutbona, Chapora and Malim jetties. In addition, the team has also been tasked to carry out LED fishing inspections.Sources revealed that the department is contemplating vesting powers in other authorities to detect violations.
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