Seven-month fishing ban in Gahirmatha from today to protect Olive Ridleys
The forest department has a imposed seven-month ‘fishing ban’ from November 1 to May 31 to protect the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles in the Gahirmatha marine sanctuary in Kendrapada district.
“This is going to benefit sea turtles that are threatened with extinction. Gahirmatha marine sanctuary is a prime feeding area for sea turtles that nest all the way up to Nasi 1 and Nasi-2 within Gahirmatha beach and other areas. Trawlers and boatmen have been directed not to fish within 20 km off the coastline in the marine sanctuary, covering 1,435 sq km from Hukitola to Dhamara. Forest department has already deployed guards to arrest fishermen who enter the marine sanctuary,” said Debashis Bhoi, forest range officer of the marine sanctuary.
“In 1997, the government declared Gahirmatha a marine sanctuary to protect the marine turtles as each winter lakhs of turtles come to Gahiramatha to lay eggs. The government bans all fishing for seven months to save the endangered marine species,” Bhoi added.
Turtles will arrive in November for mating in sea water. In March, the females will lay eggs on the beach. “We have established 15 turtle protection camps, including three offshore camps at Agaranashi, Barunei and Babubali islands to protect turtles. Policemen of marine police stations at Kharinashi and Paradip and Coast Guard will help the forest officials prevent illegal fishing,” added the forest officer.
The forest officials had arrested 773 fishermen and seized 80 boats and trawlers in Gahirmatha on the charges of illegal fishing under the Odisha Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1982, from November 1, 2019, to May 31, 2020. Due to the fishing ban imposed by the authorities, 4,07,020 turtles had laid eggs from March 14 to 21 at the Nasi-1 and Nasi-2 islands in 2020.
“Despite all the measures to protect the turtles, a large number of them are killed every year as fishing trawlers don’t use TED (turtle excluder device). Eleven years ago, the forest department had distributed 1,800 TEDs for free among trawler owners but nobody is using them,” said Hemant Rout, secretary of GMTMCS.