A four-day participatory programme of 'Workshop-cum-Demonstration on Turtle Excluder Device for the Trawl owners and Operators of Orissa coast' was held at Paradip from 9th to 12th February 2002 under the joint aegis of Directorate of Fisheries, Government of Orissa and Project Swarajya, an NGO based at Cuttack. Inaugurated by Sri Santosh Kumar Mohapatra, Chairman Paradip Port Trust at Employees Recreation Centre, it was attended by such distinguished government officials as Sri Ashok Kumar Tripathy, Commissioner-cum-Secretary Department of Fisheries and Animal Resources Development, Sri Satyabrata Sahu Director Fisheries, Sri Ambika Prasad Tripathy Chief Wildlife Warden, Sri Aurobindo Behera, Managing Director of Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority and Special Relief Commissioner, Sri Manmohan Praharaj Inspector General of Orissa Police and Sri Choudhuri Hari Das Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries Government of India. The essence of their talks was an appeal to the trawl owners and operators to examine the suitability of the proposed TED from the point of view of both it's impact on their fish catch and it's efficacy for safeguarding the endangered turtles. Sri Chitta Ranjan Behera Advisor to Project Swarajya, a Co-convenor of the programme thanked the guests and participants of the inaugural session and also coordinated the different events throughout in collaboration with the Fisheries personnel.
Besides Dr.C.S.Kar, Wildlife Research Officer of Government of Orissa and Dr.Bivas Pandav , Scientist Wildlife Institute of India served as resource persons of the programme, responding to and interacting with the trawl owners and other participants on the biology of sea turtles.
About 60 representatives of various trawler associations hailing from Dhamara, Paradip and other fishing bases of the State sank their internal differences under the banner of a common platform 'All Orissa Coordination Committee of Trawler Owners' and took a visibly active part in different events of the programme. They were so much vociferous about their interests that they at one point staged a demonstration outside the meeting hall to express their resentment against an allegedly exaggerated and false media report having negative implications for the trawling industry. Such leaders of trawl owners as Sri Tarun Kumar Pattnaik, Kishore Rath, Kameswar Narayan Praharaj and Dillip Kumar Sahu not only delivered long and fiery speeches, but also forcefully intervened on several occasions to press for the attention of the audiences to their 'hitherto ignored' points of view. Moreover, on the concluding day, a 9 point Memorandum was circulated by their Committee, in which the existing model of CIFT TED was squarely jettisoned on the apprehension that it would reduce their fish catch by 50%. The same Memorandum pleaded that any alternative device that CIFT might design in future would be acceptable to them, only and if it would cause no loss to the fish catch while saving the turtle, and that too following a year long test and trial of the viability of the new device at the Government level. Further the Memorandum underlined the willingness if the trawl owners to close down their industry for a period of 3 months of turtle breeding along Orissa coast to avoid the possibility of trawling related turtle death, provided they are paid compensation for the said period of closure. The Memorandum called for amendment to all laws that prohibit an extensive 20 km seaward area from fishing activities, since the turtle congregation according to them takes place only within 3 to 4 km of shallow waters off the coastline. The Memorandum while deploring the wastage of huge chunks of UNDP and Government money after counter-productive measures in the name of turtle conservation, strongly appealed to all concerned authorities to earmark a part of this money for paying allowances to the trawling crews and fishermen, who are willing to carry out all difficult and painstaking programmes for turtle protection at field level.
The Second day was devoted to hands-on lessons in net preparation, TED fabrication and installation in he premises of New Fishing Harbour, under the guidance of the scientists of CIFT, CIFNET and FSI, namely Dr. Raghu Prakash, Dr. Pandian, and Sri K.Gopal Krishnan along with Sri Kuttapan and Sri K.Kamaraju.
On the third day a comparative demonstration of fishing trawlers with and without attachment of TED and also with and without the attachment of the second cod end was held by four trawlers at a depth of around 16 fathoms, about 10 to 12 km off the coastline, in the presence of the scientists, trawl owners, NGOs, media men and Govt officials.
On the concluding day both Government personnel including the scientists and the trawler leaders presented their respective views and interpretations on the results of TED demonstration, which were found to be widely divergent. On the basis of the deliberations so made, a 10 point Resolution was proposed by the President of the Valedictory session Sri T.K. Behera, Joint Director of Fisheries, Orissa, which was subject to threadbare discussion. After incorporating the consensus on the amendments, the Resolution was passed unanimously which inter alia called for review and revision of all turtle conservation measures adopted so far, minimum one year trial of any new design of TED or any alternative device to precede its use by the trawl owners, necessary modification of the present design of CIFT TED found to cause excessive escape of fish, amendment of the concerned legislations on 'no fishing zone' following mandatory use of TED, a coordinated effort on the front of turtle protection and TED use between the four coastal States of East coast of India ( West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu), further in-depth studies on the endangered marine bio-diversity and ecosystems, deployment of Special Officers of the Fisheries Department in two coastal districts Kendrapara and Bhadrak for better implementation of turtle conservation measures, provision of the proposed Identity Cards for the marine fishermen and Colour Codes for the fishing vessels by the Coast Guard, more of welfare oriented and compensatory schemes for the fishermen to offset their poor condition and declining fish catch, and above all demarcation of the boundaries of 'no fishing zones' to avoid unpleasant hassles between fishermen and enforcement authorities.
Sri Rakhal Shyam Mishra, an ex-Deputy Director of Fisheries in his address as a guest of honour while expressing his whole-hearted sympathy for the plight of the fishermen, suggested that the trawler owners might try as an alternative to TED, a new simple and inexpensive device i.e. Trawl Guard, which is made of only 4 kg of nylon rope and fitted to the mouth of the trawl net. The Trawl Guard would allow the much sought after large size fishes into the trawl net while exiting the endangered turtles and sharks and even logs of wood and other sea debris.
Another guest of honour Sri Anwar Khan the Assistant Commandant of Coast Guard, Orissa observed that they are duty bound to seize the vessels found illegally operating in the sanctuary areas, just as they are duty bound to recover the lost and stranded vessels of the fishermen. If the fishermen do not want Coast Guard to enforce turtle protection measures, they should better take up the issue with the Government first of all.
The Chief Guest of the Valedictory Session Sri Choudhury Hari Das, Assistant commissioner Fisheries, Govt of India observed that he would strive at his Departmental level for introduction of more fishermen friendly schemes to compensate for their loss, if there be any on account of the use of TED.
Sri T.K.Behera President of the Valedictory Session in his concluding address expressed happiness for the active role that the trawl owners played in both deliberation and field demonstration on TED through out the Workshop. He requested them to procure TEDs free of cost from their local Departmental store for the purpose of field trial by themselves, if they so wanted.
At last Sri Srihari Pattnaik, Senior Research Officer of the Directorate of Fisheries, Orissa on behalf of the organisers of the collaborative programme extended warm thankfulness to all the resource persons, trawl owners, officials, media men and NGOs for making the Workshop into a grand success.