No fishing between June 1 and July 31 in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: With the annual ban on fishing for two months coming into force from June 1, the state’s fishermen have have lost a major portion of the summer fishing season because of the lockdown. The state fisheries department has issued a notification stating that all fishing with motorized boats will be banned from June 1 to July 31.
After the lockdown came into force from March 23, the state government had opened up fishing and allied activities from mid-April. However, with inland transportation and logistics hit, and with inter-state movement of goods hampered, fishing along the Gujarat coastline was being done on a very small scale, say fishermen associations.
All India Fishermen Association president Veljibhai Masani said that like most industries, fishing has also suffered losses. “Although fishing was allowed to resume from mid-April by the state government, the lack of a logistics chain meant that fishing was very limited,” he said.
He added that even as the central and state have begun opening up various commercial activities in Lockdown 4.0, the annual fishing ban will come into force from June 1. “All trawlers that are out on the sea will return to base in the next two or three days,” he said. “Only non-mechanized boats will be allowed to operate.”
About 75,000 fishermen, working on 15,000 trawlers, are employed in Gujarat’s fishing industry. After the lockdown was announced, fishermen associations decided that the fishermen will stay in their trawlers, a few kilometres off the coast.