In past few days a spell of disaster and gloom has descended upon the deep sea going fishermen communities of West Bengal and Odisha. From 16th to 31st July 2018 4 fishing trawlers have capsized in the coastal waters of West Bengal killing 27 fishermen. In Odisha 6 fishermen have died. Extremely inclement weather and rough sea with cyclonic wind induced by a depression in the Bay of Bengal has, beyond doubt, been the direct cause of the disaster. But the disaster, by its sheer magnitude, has thrown up some basic questions – A. It is reported that fishing trawlers ventured into the sea in spite of repeated warnings issued by the Department of Fisheries. Why the trawlers violated the warnings? Is there any administrative mechanism to prevent fishing vessels from going to the sea after warning is issued? B. Did the boats have adequate numbers of life saving jackets on board? If not, why? The fishing vessels procure license on production of purchase receipts of life jackets. Were the receipts submitted by trawler owners genuine? Or, they were not taken on board in spite of procurement? Is there any administrative mechanism to prevent fishing vessels from going to the sea without life jackets? C. Were the capsized trawlers sea worthy? Is there any administrative mechanism for regular check up of the trawlers. D. What amount of life insurance cover has been due to the crew of the trawlers? Does the owners bear any responsibility towards insurance cover of the crew of their vessels? The answers to the above expose the extreme lawlessness and administrative lapse prevailing in the mechanised fishing sector. The owners of the trawlers are saying that the crew members had ventured into the sea in spite of asking them not to go. Which is, in all probabilities, not true. The crew does not have the power to defy the order of the owner. Actually the owners need fish to make a profit and the crew are paid by percentage of the sale proceeds of the catch. So the economic interest provokes them to go to sea defying warnings. The Administration says that they are helpless, they cannot prevent a trawler from venturing into the sea. This too is not true. The trawlers operate from fishing harbours. Fishing harbours are owned and run by the Department of Fisheries. It is criminal negligence on their part if they do not close the harbours even after warnings are issued. The boat owners say that they had bought life saving jackets for the crew but the crew did not take those on board. Actually, the boat owners have to show receipts of purchase of life jackets while procuring license from the authorities. There is a tendency to show fake receipts and there is no system of verification. There is no system of checking whether the boats are actually carrying life jackets or not. The Administration does not even make random checks; they say that they lack man power. There is also no system to check whether the trawlers are sea worthy or not. It is another criminal negligence on the part of the administration to issue licenses to the trawlers without verifying their sea worthiness. The fish workers on board have very low insurance cover for their lives, though deep sea fishing is considered as one of the most hazardous jobs in the world. Thus, more often than not, the families of deceased accident victims lack minimum provision to pull through. The Fisheries Department has a provision of providing Rs. 2 lacs to each family of the deceased and every fish worker on board has to show that he has a personal accident insurance cover of at least Rs. 1 lac. The owners of the fishing vessels bear no responsibility towards this. One very important observation in this regard is that though India is a signatory to the ILO 188 Convention in the Work in Fishing, which has now been globally ratified, no initiative is observed till date to implement its provisions for occupational safety of fish workers. Another observation is this that the fishermen associations for the mechanised fishing sector are actually associations of boat owners and not of common fish workers who work on board. As such the common fish workers lack the capacity to voice and address their problems. This results in almost absolute lawlessness in the sector. No written agreement with or appointment of workers who work on board, irregularities in payment, occupational entitlements including safety measures, health and life insurance covers. In view of the above Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum (DMF) demands – – Immediate rescue of lost fishermen. – Immediate payment of Rs.10 lacs by the Government to the families of the deceased. Henceforth every sea going fisherman will have to be provided with an insurance cover of Rs. 10 lacs each to be made jointly by the Fisheries Department and the boat owner at the time of issuing license. – Cancellation of license of the fishing vessels that went for fishing defying weather warning. – Effective closure of harbour once weather warning is issued not to go for fishing in the sea. – Cancellation of the license of the fishing vessels which did not / do not have sufficient numbers of good quality life saving jackets on board while fishing. – Enforcing keeping of sufficient numbers of good quality life saving jackets on board through sudden random checks and cancellation of license of erring vessels. – Putting in place a system of checking sea worthiness of the fishing vessels while issuing license for fishing. – Coast Guard and coastal police are to be on high alert once weather warnings are issued, they should have the capacity for rescue operations under inclement weather. – All deep sea going fishing vessels should have installed mechanism for auto transmission of signals to detect their location – it is necessary for both prevention from fishing during inclement weather and rescuing. – Implementation of provisions of ILO 188 Convention in Work in Fishing.