Another Instance of Irresponsible Fishing

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

I was in Karwar a couple of days back when I encountered this curious fish I had never seen before. A group of fishermen had just hauled in their catch and were sorting it out on the beach, separating and throwing to the side the fish that were of no economic importance. Some local kids found this particular fish (pictured below) among the by-catch, and upon asking they showed it to me saying it was a "shark", and since I had my camera with me, they told me to photograph it. They then dug a pit in the sand till they found water, and put the fish in it, apparently to revive it. Fortunately it was alive, and when it started moving around actively, they picked it up and released it into the sea.

I later identified it as an Indian Swellshark (probable ID, confirmation needed. I used this for reference- Marine Species Identification Portal : Indian swellshark - Cephaloscyllium silasi (http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=sharks&id=331)). It appears to be a little-known species that lives on the sea bed and has no economic value.

This individual was luckily found alive by the children and was released back. It was good to see a few other kids also releasing some of the by-catch (eels, crabs, etc.).
But I wonder how many more of these, and even countless other species (such as pufferfish, as I witnessed), get needlessly destroyed due to such irresponsible and plain greedy fishing practices (fishing is supposed to be halted during the monsoon to allow marine animals to sufficiently reproduce for the coming season). If those kids hadn't been playing around at that time (they were not there the previous day), these few fish wouldn't have been rescued.
And this happened only as a result of small-scale fishing near the beach. So one can imagine the massive scale of destruction caused by factory trawlers.

An issue that is in great need of thought, I believe, especially in a country like India, where sea-food forms a major part of the diet in several cultures, and which at the same time has rich marine biodiversity in need of protection.

Thanks for reading.

[Mrudul Godbole]

People these days are only interested in the money and not in the life of the animal or bird they are dealing with. There are no rules and there is no awareness, so that is leading to lot of species being lost. This also reminds me of the way chicken are stored in the markets, in very small cages. The cages are so small, that I doubt the hens can even stand. I know they are going to be killed, but still the size of the cages could have been bigger :(. It is good to know that the kids atleast tried to save the fish. It surely is a sad incident.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

It is a sad situation. If you look at the trawllers, the nets virtually scrape the bottom of the sea floor and everything is taken in. Apart from the few species of fish that are edible, the other species of fish, sea snakes, turtles etc are all caught and die in the nets.

Indiscriminate fishing throughout the year wipes away many species. Most of the times the local officials are either not serious enough to enforce the fishing ban or simply turn a blind eye.

Sabyasachi