Government makes registration of fishing vessels under Merchant Shipping Act mandatory

The ministry of shipping has issued two notifications on 24 June 2009 bringing registration of all fishing vessels mandatory under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act in a bid to streamline the procedure for registration of the fishing vessels.

This will remove the multiplicity of registration regimes for fishing vessels under various central and state legislations. This will also help in securitising the country's coastline, a government release said.

Henceforth, registration of all the fishing vessels will be done under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. The existing registration format has been revised with inputs from the department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries, the release said.

The government has issued two notifications, one detailing the revised registration format for the fishing vessels and the second listing 127 registrars in various coastal states of the country.

These registrars have to register the fishing vessels as per the laid down procedure. With these two notifications, a new system of registration of the fishing vessels has been put in place in the country, the release said.

Both the notifications are available on the Ministry's website i.e. www.shipping.nic.in .