Palk Bay Scheme

Palk Bay Scheme

News: The Union Government is considering increasing the unit cost of deep-sea fishing vessels under the Palk Bay scheme to make it more attractive to fisherfolk.

Details:
• The Palk Bay Scheme is the official scheme for diversification of trawl fishing boats from Palk Strait into deep sea fishing boats.
• It is aimed at encouraging fishermen to take up deepsea fishing and put an end to disputes arising between the India and Sri Lanka.
• The project helps fishermen in the Palk Straits, who are not exposed to deep-sea fishing, to venture deep into the Indian Ocean, Arabian sea and other deep-sea areas to look for fish like tuna that are in high demand.
• Bottom trawling, an ecologically destructive practice, involves trawlers dragging weighted nets along the sea-floor, causing great depletion of aquatic resources.
• The project aims to replace all trawler boats and introduce over 2,000 deep sea fishing boats in a course of five years.The scheme, under the aegis of Blue Revolution scheme – is funded by the Centre – 50 per cent and state government – 20 per cent for a boat costing Rs 80 lakh.
• Of the balance 30 per cent, 10 per cent is contributed by the beneficiary (fisherman), and the remaining 20 per cent is funded by banks.
 

Deep Sea Fishing Plan:
• The Deep Sea fishing plan is to remove as many trawl vessels from the Palk Bay as possible.
• Potential beneficiaries of the deep see fishing project should possess a registered, seaworthy trawl vessel of over 12m in length that must be scrapped or disposed of outside the Palk Bay.
• The disposed vessel should also have been physically verified.
• Equally important, new replacement tuna long liner boats cannot trawl or operate in the Palk Bay.
• Beneficiaries are not allowed to sell their boats within five years of obtaining them.
• The scheme was envisioned as the remedy to the Palk Bay fishing conflict.The Centre feels that deep sea fishing is the “only solution” to promote ecologically sustainable fishing and reduce “fishing pressure” around the close proximity of the the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and the incidents of cross-border fishing.
• Bottom trawling, an ecologically destructive practice, involves trawlers dragging weighted nets along the sea-floor, causing great depletion of aquatic resources.Bottom trawling captures juvenile fish, thus exhausting the ocean’s resources and affecting marine conservation efforts. This practice was started by Tamil Nadu fishermen in Palk Bay and actively pursued at the peak of the civil war in Sri Lanka.
• The solution to the bottom trawling issue lies in transition from trawling to deep-sea fishing.The activity of catching fish that live in the deep parts of the sea/ocean is called deep-sea fishing.The boats are designed in such a way that fishermen get access to the deeper parts of the ocean and fish species.It is practiced worldwide, especially in the coastal areas with no ecological damage.The depth of water should be at least 30 meters to be considered a deep sea fishing zone.