September 2001. Dawn. The Tamil Nadu coast. In the middle of the Bay of Bengal, fisherman Muthu and Velu see a coast guard boat menacingly glide towards them.

"NILLU! STOP! You are in violation! Shark fishing is illegal" barks the coast guard officer at them.

"Illegal?" Muthu shouts back., "But we have been catching shark for ages, why can’t we now? What has changed?"

The fishermen are perplexed

A month later...

Customs Officer: Idu ennadu? Sura rakai? What’s this, SHARK FINS!!? Tiruda unnai kaidu seigrain!! You are under arrest!

The news of this arrest spreads rapidly throughout the fishing community… everyone is totally confused.

Muthu (Fisherman): aiya, so does this mean we won’t be able to fish sharks anymore?

Gopalbabu (Secretary of the fishermen society): What rubbish, of course you will be able to. It’s not an offence to catch shark. I haven’t received any notice saying there is a ban on shark fishing!

Muthu: Illa aiya ..no, a consignment was caught by the coast guards!

Pandit Gobar Ganesh (PGG): Really… ok don’t worry we will figure this out. There is seeming to be some confusion.

After some vigorous looking and asking around, things seemed to be falling in place.

To their horror the Ministry of Environment and Forests had put 60 marine species under the schedule one of the wildlife protection act of 1972 on 11th July 2001and hadn’t even informed them about it!!!!!!

PGG: This list includes certain types of coral, a wide range of molluscan species (soft bodied creatures with shells like snails) including chanks, sea horses and the giant grouper. Wait there is more and this is worse, all species of sharks, rays and skates are all included in the list!!!

Velu: Illa, aana aiya, what does this mean?

PGG: The inclusion of these items under schedule 1 of the Act means that they cannot be caught or harvested. They cannot be traded or made into any product for sale. Mere stocking of these species in any form is a crime.

Muthu: Illa aana aiya, but this means that my people and I will lose an important source of livelihood!

PGG: That’s true, this blanket ban will be a terrible blow to over 120,000 Indian fisheries.

Muthu: And there are so many of us who are dependent on cheap salted shark meat for a living! We earn money by selling it. Don’t they care?

Gopalbabu: Moreover isn’t schedule one only for species that are threatened by extinction? Are all shark species becoming extinct?

PGG: Haanji, it is true that there are some species that are endangered. It could also be true that all species of shark are under threat! In which case it would probably be best to stop shark fishing. So unless we get to know how many sharks there are it will be difficult to conclude if they are being overfished!

Muthu: Even we fishermen are concerned about this. We better find out soon because we don’t want lose the source of our livelihood by finishing all of them!

Velu: So they just thought it convenient to put a ban on fishing of all shark species found here, instead of figuring out which ones are in trouble.

Gopalbabu: First they don’t even consult us and then they don’t inform us about the ban! We had to get caught by customs to learn about this ill thought ban! Granted there was talk about a ban on whale shark fishing, but there was no mention of banning fishing of all shark species! But we are going to fight this. Let’s go to New Delhi to protest!