Forest personnel on Saturday seized a fishing trawler ‘Pabanputra’ and arrested seven fishermen for illegally catching fish in the no-fishing zone of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, informed Ranger Subrat Kumar Patra.
According to Patra, the forest officials came across the fishing trawler in the sea, just 11 km from coast at Hukitola, during a patrolling on Friday. Besides seizing the trawler and arresting fishermen, the officials also seized over a quintal of fish, seven fishing nets, GPS sets, fish finder, VHF sets and other fish catching equipments from the trawler. The arrested were produced before the JMFC Court, at Rajnagar and sent to jail custody on Saturday.
With this, Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary personnel seized a total of 14 boats and arrested 96 fishermen since the fishing ban was imposed on November 1 for safety of Olive Ridley sea turtles, informed official sources.