As India seeks to reap the benefits of the Blue Revolution from its seas, it is tempting to view fish stocks and fisheries resources as the unquestioned basis of blue growth. Yet, nearshore stocks of fish seem to have plateaued and deep-sea fishing activities are floundering. Clearly, it is time for a policy re-think.
That is the mandate of the Expert Committee Constituted for Comprehensive Review of the Deep-sea Fishing Policy and Guidelines, whose Report has been recently published and opened for feedback.
The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) has welcomed the transparency shown in seeking feedback on the Report. In comments submitted recently from Chennai, ICSF says the report allows all stakeholders to mull over the proposed recommendations for changes in the national policy and how to develop fisheries in India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The report, for the first time, seeks to understand marine and coastal fisheries issues from the perspective of India’s international obligations. ICSF has added some suggestions for developing the policy, including integrating into relevant legal instruments the 2014 FAO Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention, 2007.
ICSF believes it is important to develop effective national legislation for fishing operations in the EEZ, coherent with state marine fishing regulation acts, before coming out with a national fishing, or fisheries, policy. But there should be plans to revise the existing policy if an inordinate delay is expected in formulating and implementing new legislation.
Among the other recommendations in the ICSF feedback are:
— broadening the spatial scope of the policy to encompass both territorial waters and the EEZ
— ensuring stakeholder consultation and participation in decision-making processes
— addressing gender-related issues
— protecting the rights of traditional fishers to coastal and marine fisheries
resources
— developing criteria for mechanization and motorization of fishing vessels
— improving working and living conditions of fishers and fishworkers, both onboard and onshore
— proposing guidelines for monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) systems in marine fisheries
— considering co-management regimes in coastal and marine fisheries
— promoting infrastructure subsidies and phasing out capacity-enhancing subsidies
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; and the protection of the traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights of traditional fishing communities are also stressed in the feedback. ICSF believes these should be paid adequate attention in the new fisheries policy.
ICSF has highlighted the operations of the artisanal fishermen of Thoothoor in Tamil Nadu, which appear particularly suited for the EEZ adjacent to the territorial sea along the western seaboard, and areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), or the high seas. ICSF suggests the Thoothoor deep-sea fleet should be encouraged to fish sustainably in the Indian EEZ and the high seas, in lieu of promoting Letter of Permission (LOP) vessels.
ICSF believes there is no justification in importing fishing vessels under joint ventures for tuna fishing in the Indian EEZ, especially considering the consistently poor record of all such initiatives in the past 33 years. Consequently, ICSF requests the Government of India to rescind its joint-venture policy, which has neither increased fish production nor transferred knowledge and technology to the Indian fishing industry. Instead, a viable indigenous fishing fleet should be promoted.
ICSF has also questioned the rationale of the Report’s recommendation for a 200-500-m bathymetric area as a buffer zone to diversity the existing fishing fleet and to rejuvenate fishery resources in the nearshore and offshore waters. This, ICSF believes, would foster inequity between coastal states with differing widths of the continental shelf.
Many of the proposed policy changes could be better addressed by adopting a human-rights-based approach to fisheries as enunciated in the FAO SSF Guidelines, ICSF notes.
The ICSF feedback concludes by hoping that all the innovative recommendations of the Report that promote equity, sustainability and self-reliance in the Indian fisheries sector are endorsed by the Government of India and are implemented in a time-bound fashion.
The full text of the document containing ICSF’s feedback is available at
http://indianfisheries.icsf.net/en/page/614-Fisheries%20Development%20and%20Management.html
ICSF is an international NGO that works towards the establishment of equitable, gender-just,self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector. For more, please visit www.icsf.net
ICSF 2014