Fishermen jailed for intruding into turtle habitat

In a major mid-sea crackdown, the Forest personnel have taken into custody 20 marine fishermen for intruding into turtles’ habitat and have made a seizure of four mechanized sea-fishing vessels off the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary coast.

The fishing vessels had trespassed into prohibited sanctuary corridors contravening the provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act and mandatory rules of marine sanctuary.

Crackdown of unlawful sea fishing has been stepped up in an attempt to make the turtles’ concentration zone from human interference. The sighting of hundreds of carcasses of marine animals on the beach at Paradip recently had put the Forest Department in a spot of bother.

The emergence of breeding Olive Ridley turtles from sea water to Gahirmatha’s sandy beaches for arribada, a Spanish term meaning en masse egg laying by marine turtle, is expected to take place within the next couple of months.

The Bengali-speaking marine fishermen were from Balashore and Paradip area. They were sent to jail custody under the Section-27 & 29 of the provisions of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and Orissa Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1982, said Forest officials.

With the latest mid-sea crackdown, 112 marine fishermen have been taken into custody till date while 26 intruding fishing trawls seized for indulging in unlawful fishing activity within the prohibited zones of the marine sanctuary.

The operation to stop unlawful trawling to ensure the safety of Olive Ridley turtles is being jointly conducted by Coast Guard and Forest, Police and Fisheries departments after the marine animals began their annual breeding season in November. These delicate marine species are expected to invade the beach to lay eggs, a unique natural phenomenon otherwise described as Arribada, very shortly, said Mr. Manoj Kumar Mahapatra, Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (Wildlife) Forest Division.

It may be noted here that the State Government has clamped trawl fishing ban along the 20 km stretch of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary from Nov. 1 in view of the ensuing mass nesting of endangered Olive Ridley marine turtles. The imposition of prohibition was in accordance with Sections 2, 3 and 4 of Orissa Maine Fishing Regulation Act (OMFRA).

Rise in mortality rate of mating turtles along the coastal water surface led to the clamping of prohibition as the gill nets used by the trawls prove to be messenger of death for these breeding turtles. The mute species, Schedule-1 animal under Wildlife Protection Act for its highly threatened status, get entangled in the nets for prolonged period and die of asphyxiation. The turtles also perish in large numbers after getting hit by the fast moving propeller of the fishing trawlers, Forest personnel told this reporter.

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