The National Fish Workers’ Forum (NFF) has said that it will organise a protest in the open seas off all the maritime States in the country on October 30 against a Union government move to notify a shipping channel that will hit the livelihoods of fishermen. NFF general secretary T. Peter, Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation State president P.P. John, secretary Jackson Pollayil, and vice president V.D. Majeendran told a press conference here on Saturday that it was the duty of the government to protect lakhs of fishermen who were self-employed and were providing valuable food to society. The Union government move is to designate an area of 20 nautical miles (about 37 km) in width beyond 15 nautical miles off the coast between Kutch in Gujarat and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu as the shipping channel. This is the area where traditional and other fishermen engage in fishing. They said they had already sent a memorandum to the Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari.