Fishing vessel seized for illegally catching fish in G'matha, 6 held

Forest officials of the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary intercepted a fishing trawler and arrested six fishermen for illegally catching fish after entering into the prohibited zone of the sanctuary on Tuesday night, informed Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary Ranger Subrat Kumar Patra. The arrested fishermen were produced before the JMFC Court of Rajnagar on Wednesday and they were remanded to judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected.

While patrolling at night, Patra said, the forest personnel found a Paradip-based fishing trawler ‘Parvati-III’ catching fish illegally near Chinchiri mouth after entering into ‘No Fishing Zone’ of the sanctuary. The team immediately intercepted the trawler and managed to arrest six fishermen. The forest personnel also seized a quintal of fish catch, fishing nets and other fishing equipments from the seized trawler.

Notably, as many as 28 fishing trawlers have been intercepted so far whereas 193 fishermen were arrested by the forest personnel for fishing illegally at ‘No Fishing Zone’ within the sanctuary. The prohibition order was clamped on sea fishing from November 1 to till date within the 20 km off the coast in order to protect endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle’s nesting affair.