Chennai: Fisheries minister D. Jayakumar on Tuesday came out announcements to set up new fish landing centers at 11 places, besides deep sea fishing training for fishermen to avoid attacks of Sri Lankan navy at Palk Bay.
Replying to the discussion on demand for grants to his department at the Assembly, he said a new fish landing centre at Kundhukal village in Ramanathapuram district to avoid congestion. Besides, ten fish landing centres at 10 places in Nagapattinam, Tuticorin, Pudukottai, Kancheepuram and Cuddalore districts with Nabard assistance of Rs 89 crore.
The minister said deep sea fishing centres would be set up at Thoothur in Kanyakumari district to avoid crowding in Palt strait and attack of Sri Lankan navy. Fishing by bottom trawlers in the Palk Bay had been receiving high level of attention as the state fishermen are often arrested by Sri Lankan navy, he said.
“As a way forward, the government had issued orders to diversify trawlers from Palk Bay into deep sea fishing Tuna long liner cum gill netter boats in a phased manner over a period of three years with funding assistance from the central and state governments”, the minister said.
He said fishermen would be given subsidy to change their catamarans and buy optic fibre boats with fishing equipment. He said all the schemes for fishermen would be given through e-service from the current year.
Jayakumar said the sea food canteen at Teynampet run by Tamil Nadu Fisheries Development Corpoation would be modernised at a cost of '1 crore. The government prawn farm at Vaniyanchavadi would be developed into a park to attract tourists. He said new technology based on bio floc method would be created for prawn and fish production.
The inland fish production in the state had come down from 2.42 lakh tonnes in 2016 to 1.97 lakh tonnes this year due to the failure of north east monsoon and the resulting scarcity of water.
During 2017, 165 fishermen of Tamil Nadu were apprehended by Sri Lankan navy of which 123 fishermen were released and repatriated. Efforts are also being made to release the 42 fishermen and 141 boats detained by the Lankan government up to 30 June this year.
Since May 2011, a total of 2,664 fishermen and their 357 boats had been released from the island nation's custody and repatriated to Tamil Nadu through the efforts of the state government, he said.
