Bangladesh Fish Workers' Alliance (BFWA), which works for the interest of small fish
workers, specially in the coastal belt, has expressed concern over the government's decision to give licenses to fishing trawlers in the Bay of Bengal without having any survey of the fish stocks.
It will destroy the livelihood of small fisher folk, around 20 million now, who are living on the sea resources of Bay of Bengal, they said demanding a rational approach to the new licensing. BFWA raised these issues at a press briefing recently at Jatiya Press Club urging the authorities to carry out a survey first before commissioning more fishing trawlers in the Bay of Bengal.
Five other fisher folks bodies and coastal-based NGOs namely COAST, CODEC, PASS,
SAD-BD, and Udayan echoed the same new. World Forum for Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers (WFF) expressed their solidarity with them.
They urged the government to take into account the interest of small fisher folk while
giving new trawler licenses. Sanat Kumar Bhowmik of BFWA, Sheikh Asad of Udayan from Bagerhat, Shawkat Ali Tutul and Mustafa Kamal Akanda of COAST Trust spoke at the press conference.
They said, small fisher folks are already facing survival challenges from climate change impacts on their livelihood. The new licensing of fishing trawlers will make their situation further critical as those trawlers will catch fish within the forty meters deep areas of the Bay of Bengal where small fisher folk traditionally catch fish. Presence of big trawlers is illegal in those areas but there is no effective monitoring system.
They sounded critical at the government policy saying the government during its previous tenure had said that they would not give any new license to fishing trawlers without any survey on the fish stock in the Bay of Bengal. Now the government is issuing new licenses to persons based on party consideration without any scientific analysis.
At present there are 299 Trawlers exploiting fish resource in the Bay of Bengal. They said long liner trawlers use bottom trolley net, which catch fish fry and all the small fish from the sea bottom. Small fishermen now operate 43 thousand mechanized boats within 40 meters depth. But very often big trawlers illegally catch fish in those areas destroying earnings of the small fishermen.
The government is promoting the interest of rich people at the cost of the poor fishermen, they claimed urging the authorities to protect small and poor fisher folk of the coastal area in the first place.