Trawlers to be Colour Coded This Season

Director of fisheries N Verlekar told the TimesOfIndia that all the trawlers will be painted white while their cabins will be painted sky blue and the 'senders' or the borders of the vessels will be painted black.

This colour-coding has been decided to make it easy to spot Goan fishing trawlers in high seas and to separate them from non-Goan trawlers when they venture into the waters off Goa.

The current fishing season ends on 15 June, but all fishing vessels have already dropped anchor in various fishing ports like Malim, Cutbona, Vasco, Chapora, etc. Many of the trawlers have also been dry-docked at private shipyards for overhauling, repairs and painting because of the new colour code which is expected to be notified this week.

At Cutbona, fishing boats stopped venturing into the sea over a week ago owing to rough conditions. Fishing boat owners complain that the mouth of the river Sal has become dangerously narrow for vessels to navigate.

"Almost all boats have stopped going out to sea," said Patrick D'Silva, president of Cutbona fishing boat owners' association.

"The sea is turbulent and with the memories of cyclone Phyan still fresh in the minds of the fishermen, many are unwilling to go out into the seas during such times," Mr D'Silva said.

Roosevelt Alemao, vice president of the association, urged the government to expedite work on the proposed project of upgrading the Cutbona jetty.

The 45-day fishing ban begins on 15 June and concludes on 30 July with the fishing season beginning from 1 August. Small quantities of fish will continue to be available in the markets. Fresh fish, mostly small varieties, will be made available by local traditional fishermen who will fish in rivers and close to the shore when weather permits. Frozen fish will also be brought in from other states in cold-storage trucks and distributed from the Margao whole-sale market to other fish markets in the state.

The work on the extension and building of the Malim jetty has been delayed because of a decision to extend the new jetty by a further 20m, sources in the Mandovi Fishermens Marketing Co-operative Society told Times Of India. The new jetty will now be 50m in length when it is completed next year.