Team Herald
PANJIM: This Goan ‘Pele’ from Benaulim does love football, but plays with his heart for justice for his people, the traditional fishermen of Goa.
It was a heart-rending sight to see Pele, formally Francisco Fernandes, weeping on camera, during Herald TV’s discussion ‘Point Counterpoint’ titled ‘Destroyers of Goan Fishing: LED lights and gensets’, on Thursday.
Even as August and September are peak months, there is no fish left for them amid reckless bull trawling and LED fishing, Pele, at times lovingly called Pelo by locals said, “The survival of traditional Goan fishermen is at stake. We don’t want to harbour suicidal thoughts like farmers in Punjab.”
Ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi festival, the traditional fishermen would net tonnes of squids. This year there is nothing. The traditional fishermen’s catch is dwindling day by day due to indiscriminate bull trawling and often return with less quantity of fish catch. Pele narrated how it takes one-and-half-hour to go to Vasco, but one canoe returned with a basket of mackerels, while the other two returned empty-handed.
The government has not provided any functional speed boats (fast interceptor vessels) to the Coastal Security police for patrolling and to nab hundreds of trawlers from Malpe entering Goan territorial waters and plundering the Goan coast by wiping out fish by bull trawling. The fish is completely depleted due to this massive assault on fishing resources, he rued.
Pele said that the coastal police have no speed boats to catch the Malpe trawlers which have big engines. Often he has lent his speed boats to the coastal security police to apprehend them.
“We are not asking for subsidies for fuel nor for fishing nets. We, traditional fishermen, are facing bad times, deep crisis due to dwindling fish catch. I appeal to the Chief Minister to provide us safety and not to drive us to take drastic steps,” Pele said.