Centre for Marine Fisheries Research Institute Director oppose SSCP

Pillai was inaugurating a seminar on “biodiversity
regime and emerging challenges and opportunities” organised by
Mangalore Research Centre of CMFRI here on Thursday. He said the Gulf
had 3,600 species, including 300 species that were endemic to the
region.

He gave the example of how projects such as Kochi
shipyard had affected the marine biodiversity in Kochi estuary. He had
studied virgin estuary in 1971-73 and there was little or no
development activity. But another study he guided recently had revealed
a biodiversity loss of up to 60 per cent.

He said a study by
the World Wide Fund had revealed that a quarter of wildlife had been
lost since 1970 and the maximum loss was reported in freshwater aquatic
regions (29 per cent). The phenomenon of vanishing wildlife had reached
alarming proportions, he said. Unless strict regulations were enforced,
biodiversity loss would reach a staggering 60 to 70 per cent in the
next three decades, he said. Decrying lack of political will to
intervene effectively, he regretted that enforcement of many
regulations left much to be desired. The only regulation adhered to was
fishing holidays of 47 to 60 days. Although development activities
could not be done away with, proper advice to policy makers had to be
given and they might not be able to implement them for various reasons.
Describing the use of trawl fishnets as “dangerous fishing practice,”
he said net regulations had to be strictly enforced.

The nets brought a lot of non-edible biota to the shore and this was resulting in a “significant” biodiversity loss.

Recalling
that India was home to three of the 37 global biodiversity hotspots,
Pillai said some 600 species here had deteriorated.

Pillai released a CD on biodiversity.