Olive Ridley turtles at Gahirmatha

Paradip, Nov. 25: Stepping up its vigil to protect Olive Ridley turtles, the Coast Guard has launched Operation Oliver to intercept unlawful trawling activities to ensure their safe mid-sea sojourn following mass nesting on the beaches of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary.

The annual operation aimed to protect the Olive Ridley turtles along the sanctuary, said a coast guard personnel.

“A high-power committee of the state government has sought our services in their turtle conservation programme. Accordingly, the operation to keep a vigil on illegal fishing along the turtle concentration zone is now going on in full swing,” said K.P.S. Raghuvamshi, deputy inspector general, Coast Guard, Paradip.

The Coast Guard has pressed into service a ship besides a Dornier aircraft for the operation. It is also keeping a tab on illegal fishing along the sanctuary.

“We do it every year to ensure safety of these marine turtles. The patrol exercise for surveillance on trespassing trawlers is in full swing as incidents of death of turtles after getting hit on the trawlers’ propellers are reported frequently. The breeding animals also get entangled in fishing nets and are asphyxiated to death,” said Raghuvamshi.

“The Coast Guard is always alert to check trespassing of vessels. The patrol vessels engaged by forest and fisheries department often seek the assistance of Coast Guard ships in event of exigencies. We are carrying out the operation in a coordinated manner,” he said.

A state-of-the-art Coast Guard ship has been put on round-the-clock vigil duty along the shoreline.

The Coast Guard would patrol the area till the turtles finished laying eggs on the beaches, he added.

While the focus of the Coast Guard has always been to intercept trespassing of foreign vessels, there always remains a confusion over proper identification of Bangladeshi infiltrators. Coast Guard personnel had earlier asked the state fisheries department to issue identity cards to all the state’s marine fishermen inhabiting in migration-prone coastal villages.

The detection of Bangladeshi infiltrators on trawlers has always been difficult because of their striking similarity in language, appearance and physical features with local Bengali-speaking fishermen.