The marine enforcement squad under the Fisheries department has intensified patrol along the Kozhikode-Vadakara coastline, noticing increasing attempts by a section of local fishers to employ illegal Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD) to catch cuttlefish. Enforcement squad members say coconut flower stacks, plastic bottles and sand bags are mostly used for FADs to hunt the fish variety violating all norms.
“We seized three boats recently from Koyilandy which were loaded with FAD materials for illegal fishing. Action was taken under the Kerala Marine Fishing Regulation Act against the fishers and boat owners,” says an official. He says that legal action will continue against the method of using non-degradable materials that causes huge pollution threat apart from challenging the marine ecosystem.
