Tamil Nadu plans to go high-tech in fishing to tap the large resource in the mid-sea.
Learning from the techniques used in Denmark, the State Government plans to procure two mid-sea processing ships a first in the country.
The ships will act as mother vessels and process the fish caught in high seas. Baby ships, carrying the processed fish, will shuttle between the mother vessel and the shore. This will help the fishermen sell their catch on arrival at the shore.
The ships could cost around Rs 80 crore, with plans to deploy one in Bay of Bengal and the other in the Indian Ocean, according to a senior official in the Fisheries Department who did not want to be identified.
A set of baby vessels will also be engaged for commercial fishing activity in the deep waters and to deposit the catches in the mid-sea processing units.
We will be first State in the country to go for such mid-sea fish processing units. Government’s plan is to make fishermen exploit the huge fish resources available in mid-sea. So far, the fishermen have concentrated only in the shallow waters where the yield is poor, the official said.
The units will also act as a value-added export-oriented park to ensure quality standards for export and better price to fishermen for their catch. The project will be taken up under public-private partnership, the official said.
The Fisheries Department will prepare a feasibility report to procure the two ships. The Government will appoint a technically competent agency to assisting in the project. The Department will appoint a consultant to prepare the feasibility report through international bidding.
2012, The Hindu