Illegal overfishing adds to concerns of fish stock depletion in Vembanad Lake

Fisheries department has launched an extensive patrolling across the region

Scenes of fishermen pushing their country boats through Vembanad Lake and casting their nets wider on the water can be a perfect representation of countryside Kerala.

An inquiry with the Fisheries department, however, suggests that the fish wealth in the brackish water system has been under severe stress due to predatory fishing. Several people, mostly outsiders, are crowding together along the region to take advantage of the lucrative fish-breeding grounds here.

Taking a serious note of the issue, the Fisheries department has launched an extensive patrolling across the region that has resulted in seizure of several hundreds of banned fishing gears. The news of policing on the water, meanwhile, has created a deterrent effect among the illegal fishers for the time being.

“Illegal fishing gears including nets of small mesh size have been seized from areas including Pallam, Kumarakom, Methran Kayal, and Pathupangu. Most of them were found at the mouth of the polder networks, which serve as the breeding ground for inland fish stock during the monsoon,’’ says Benny Williams, Deputy Director of Fisheries, Kottayam.

To make sure that the illegal operators do not return to the spot, the department has launched patrolling operations in the backwater landscape. “The practice is leading to a widespread depletion of inland fish stock, as these gears do not spare even the smallest of fishlings, which are not of any use even to the catchers,’’ adds the official.

Meanwhile, official sources say a handful of Chinese nets that were dismantled a couple of years ago citing lack of registration and licence have resurfaced in the lake. “The majority of these nets, which made a return during the pandemic period, is concentrated in and around the Thanneermukkom barrage.”

Pointing to a widespread depletion of the overall fish stock in the brackish water system over the previous decades , experts have warned of a devastating consequence of this illegal overfishing to the local fishing community. As per estimates by the International Research and Training Centre for Below Sea Level Farming, the overall fish wealth in the lake has come down from 23,000 tonnes to about 4,700 tonnes in the recent years.