Judgment

P.B.SAWANT, J.

(1) THE dispute in the present case is essentially between the fishermen in the State of Kerala who use traditional fishing crafts such as catamarans, country crafts and canoes which use manually operated traditional nets and those who use mechanised crafts which mechanically operate sophisticated nets like purse seine, ring seine, pelagic trawl and mid-water trawl gears for fishing in the territorial waters of the State. In order to understand the nature and parameters of the dispute, it is necessary to know certain facts relating to the social life in the State and the marine life in the territorial waters of the State as well as the scope and object of the regulations made by the State to regulate fishing in its territorial waters.

(2) THE fisherman-population actively engaged in fishing by traditional fishing vessels in the territorial waters of the State which was earlier 5,37,017 increased by 20.8 to 6,32,967 in the year 1981. However, the average landing of the fish in the traditional sector of fishing declined by 50.3 from 3,34,992 tonnes in 1969-71 to 1,68,512 tonnes in 1980-82. During this period, the number of traditi