KENDRAPADA: Around 200 Olive Ridley turtle carcasses have washed up at the sea seashores in Paradip and Siali in Jagatsinghpur district and Satabhaya and Pentha in Kendrapada district recently.
Environmentalists have blamed fishing trawlers for the crisis. When the turtles get involved in the nets forged by rushing fishing trawlers, the fishermen hit them with hammers to kill them and keep their expensive nylon nets intact. "The death of nearly 1.50 lakh turtles over the past 15 years will adversely affect the population of the endangered marine species. We recently buried around 70 turtles in Paradip beach alone," said Prafulla Patnaik, an environmentalist and director of Nature Drive Trust of India.
The possibility to turtles can also be reduced by equipping trawlers with a turtle excluder device (TED), a small further net or metal grid within the nylon net that permits entangled turtles to flee while retaining the fish catch. However, maximum trawlers don't have one of these device.
The Odisha Marine Fishing Regulation Act (OMFRA), 1982, which seeks to conserve marine resources, used to be formulated to offer protection to the pursuits of native and standard fishermen against mechanized boats encroaching upon their age-old fishing zones, in addition to test and limit trawlers from intruding into the territorial waters of the state. "The Act is ineffective and trawler fishing has been going on unchecked off the coast," said Patnaik.
Environmentalists have blamed fishing trawlers for the crisis. When the turtles get involved in the nets forged by rushing fishing trawlers, the fishermen hit them with hammers to kill them and keep their expensive nylon nets intact. "The death of nearly 1.50 lakh turtles over the past 15 years will adversely affect the population of the endangered marine species. We recently buried around 70 turtles in Paradip beach alone," said Prafulla Patnaik, an environmentalist and director of Nature Drive Trust of India.
The possibility to turtles can also be reduced by equipping trawlers with a turtle excluder device (TED), a small further net or metal grid within the nylon net that permits entangled turtles to flee while retaining the fish catch. However, maximum trawlers don't have one of these device.
The Odisha Marine Fishing Regulation Act (OMFRA), 1982, which seeks to conserve marine resources, used to be formulated to offer protection to the pursuits of native and standard fishermen against mechanized boats encroaching upon their age-old fishing zones, in addition to test and limit trawlers from intruding into the territorial waters of the state. "The Act is ineffective and trawler fishing has been going on unchecked off the coast," said Patnaik.
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