Fishermen worried over oceans spitting out plastics

NP NEWS NETWORK

Goa

With the human beings increasingly using Ocean as a dumping ground for waste, the fishermen in Goa are witnessing a phenomenon wherein plastic is being caught into their net.

The amount of plastic is increasing and its almost same to that of the fish caught. The phenomenon of plastic getting stuck into their net has increased since last ten years.

The fishermen claim that after netting the fish, they have to spend time segregating plastic and the catch, as the quantum of waste that gets stuck in the net is ever increasing.

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“The problem has been worsening in last ten years. There are times when 50 per cent of the catch is plastic from the Sea. So after we pull out the net, equal time is wasted on separating fish from the plastic trash,” said Anthony, a 63-year-old fishermen from Caranzalem, a fishing hamlet between Dona Paula and Panaji.

Fishermen in Carenzalem for generations have been using their long nets (more than one kilometers length, 6 meters height) to do fishing in the shallow sea in Mandovi river bay.

Anthony said that he has been active in fishing for last 25 years in Caranzalem where he has his house right on the beach, but has never seen such kind of phenomenon of plastic being netted in such huge quantity.

Researcher Dr P V Unnikrishnan, Regional Head, Greenwaves Environmental Solutions Goa, a company working in the field of environment protection, said that fishermen have been complaining that for the past 10 years they have been noticing a gradual increase in the trash being collected along with the fish.

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“It has been increasing year by year and especially during the monsoon season in July and August. This year plastic trash levels collected are higher than the last year,” said Unnikrishnan, who has been collecting data from the fishermen on this issue.

He said  due to the large amount of trash collected the fishermen are finding it hard to pull-out these long nets. Even after the net comes to the shore it is a herculaneous task to separate the trash from the fish.

Goa has 90 villages which are prominently fishing hamlets.

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Unnikrishnan said that the government agencies need to pull up sleeves.

“After the fishes are separated the trash collected is just left in the beach in the evening. The beach experiences high tide around 9 pm and these trashes are all washed back in to the Sea. Only some trash is left in the shore for the government agencies to clean up next morning,” he said.

Unnikrishnan said that the trash collected in the nets are predominantly containing packing material of everyday items, like Detergent covers, Biscuit packets, Candy covers, Noodles cover and others.

Unnikrishnan said that  the long-terms solution to this issue is to first prevent throwing trash in to the rivers or ocean. This will happen only through collective cooperation from everyone living near the rivers, riding in boats or people visiting the beaches. Large clean-up drives and mass awareness campaigns have to be done to change the dumping habits of the human community.

When contacted, State Fisheries Minister Vinod Palyekar said that the department has been providing all possible help to the traditional fishermen. “But when it comes to plastic from the sea and related problems, it is for us, human beings, to ensure that we don’t litter on the shores.”

Palyekar said that State government taking up several initiatives to avoid littering will go a long way in solving this problem.