Karwar fishermen oppose ship breaking

Fishermen of Karwar in coastal Karnataka have strongly opposed a move by the authorities to bring to their shores for breaking a wreaked merchant ship stranded in the Arabian Ocean off the Karwar coast since almost a year.

The Panama-registered merchant vessel Ocean Seraya, which had been anchored near an island during May last year, had drifted in bad weather and hit a rock, leading to the ship wreck. The ship, which had broken into two, has been stranded on a rocky island since then.

But, the administration is concerned that the broken parts of the ship could drift away from the rocky island in the heavy winds of the coming monsoon and may hit another vessel or a fishing boat, leading to marine accident.

Hence, the Deputy Commissioner of Uttar Kannada Ritesh Kumar Singh district convened a meeting of fishermen of Karwar in a bid to convince them about the urgency for shifting the broken parts of the ship to the nearest shore at Majali for breaking.

But, the fishermen opposed the idea tooth and nail on account of the threat to the environment from the disposal of toxic substances from the ship breaking exercise. Though Ritesh Kumar Singh promised the fishermen that officials from the Pollution Control Board would monitor the ship breaking exercise, the fishermen were not convinced. “We are prepared to die rather than allow ship breaking to take place”, said the fishermen.

Responding to fishermen’s suggestion that the authorities tow the two broken parts of the ship to Gujarat, where ship breaking yards existed, Commander Manoj Baadkar, the officer in charge of Coast Guards in Karnataka, said towing the broken parts of the ship to Gujarat was not a practical proposition.

He also observed that dumping of broken parts of the ship in the high seas might not be permissible at the international level.