Starting from June, South-West monsoon winds brings in rain carrying clouds to the Indian sub-continent. This leads to heavy showers over various states including Kerala.
These environmental conditions set the stage for the breeding process of variety of fishes along the coast. Any disturbance to this process will deplete the fish wealth.
This is the reason behind Kerala Government banning trawling activities during this period, since 1988.
The 52-day-long trawling ban will come into effect from June 9 midnight. From then, around 5,000 fishing trawlers will have to keep 12 nautical miles away from the Kerala coast.
The ban will be lifted on the midnight of July 31. However, the ban is not applicable to the traditional fishermen who engage in fishing in the sea on traditional boats.
According to the rules, the state’s jurisdiction is up to 12 nautical miles and hence it can come out with directives and those trawlers which break these rules will be fined.
As a result of the ban, the prices of fish are expected to go up by a minimum of 25 per cent. Fish is considered to be one of the most important dish in a vast majority of the Kerala households.
Kerala has over 200 fishing villages and the total fishermen in the coastal state comes to over seven lakh.
