The Hindu : MoU signed to promote coastal fisheries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 27, 2003

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MoU signed to promote coastal fisheries

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI APRIL 26. To promote sustainable coastal fisheries in the Bay of Bengal and for its efficient management for the benefit of small fishermen, an agreement was signed by India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh here today.

The signing of the Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBP- IGO) agreement institutionalises a 23-year-old externally-funded BOB programme into a self-reliant regional agency that would assist the member countries in fisheries development, according to the programme coordinator, Y.S.Yadava.

The Secretary to the Union Ministry of Agriculture, Binoo Sen, who presided over the function, said that the BOBP-IGO was a multi-disciplinary and regional endeavour, the first of its kind in the region. Coastal States should cooperate in the management of transboundary, straddling or highly migratory fish stocks, she said. She urged other countries also to join the organisation to strengthen it for sharing the benefits. She called for a code of conduct among the member States for conservation and sustainable development of fisheries and hoped that the organisation would facilitate community management at the local level and cooperation at the regional level.

Mohammed Abdul Huq, representative from Bangladesh, and D. Piyasena, Sri Lanka's Director General of Fisheries, said the earlier BOB project had succeeded in harnessing fisheries in the region and the birth of BOBP-IGO would herald a new era of cooperation among the littoral States.

The Union Joint Secretary (Fisheries), P.K.Pattannaik, said that degradation of fishing resources and excess exploitation were causing concern.

The regional representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Daniel Gustafson, said the launching of the programme testified to the good work done by the BOBP in the last 24 years.

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