The Forest personnel of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary here on Wednesday arrested nine fishermen and seized a fishing trawler from the prohibited fishing zone.
Ranger Subrat Kumar Patra said a Dhamara-based fishing trawler “Maa Mangala -2” was illegally catching fish near Chinchiri mouth. Soon, it was chased and nine fishermen on board were arrested along with five quintals of fish catch, fishing nets and other fishing equipment.
The arrested were identified as Bankesh Das, Jagannath Dalai, Bhagaban Maiti, Kusa Majhi, Pradip Singh, Srikrishna Behera, Gopal Dalei, Manoj Parmanik and Chinmaya Das. They all belong to Dhamara area. It may be noted that fishing has been prohibited since November 1 within 20 km off Gahirmatha to provide safety to Olive Ridley turtles.