The Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) has filed a writ petition in the Court of Appeal (CA) against the use of tractors equipped with mechanical winches used for hauling ma-del nets based fishing (beach seine). 

The organisation has sought writs of mandamus and certiorari against the respondents, namely, the Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Ministry, the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Department, the Coastal Conservation and Coastal Resource Management Department, the Wildlife Conservation Department, the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the Police, the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), and the Attorney General for alleged inaction, the failure to act, and the abdication of statutory duties. 

The petitioners state that ma-del fishing constitutes one of the oldest, historically significant, and culturally embedded traditional fishing methods practised. "Ma-del fishing has been carried out as a regulated, seasonal, and labour-intensive activity, fundamentally reliant on coordinated human effort rather than mechanical force, and intrinsically linked to coastal rhythms, ecological limits, and communal participation. Traditionally, ma-del fishing involved the casting of a net from a manually operated canoe, setting the net in a semicircular formation close to the shore, and hauling the net ashore solely by human labour. 

The introduction of tractors and mechanical winches has fundamentally transformed the traditional ma-del fishing practice. Mechanised hauling allows operators to deploy nets repeatedly throughout the day, significantly increasing the frequency and intensity of fishing operations. This heightened extraction capacity leads to overfishing, disrupts the natural replenishment of near-shore fish stocks, and undermines the sustainability of what was historically a seasonal, labour-intensive, and ecologically balanced fishing method. 

Mechanisation also enables nets to be set at greater distances from the shore and across substantially larger sea areas, thereby sweeping a wider ecological zone and capturing a greater diversity of species, including juvenile fish and non-target organisms, causing significant harm to the marine ecosystem. This expansion in speed, scale, and reach allows mechanised operators to outcompete traditional fishers, undermining customary fishing practices and livelihoods, and has fuelled growing tension, economic inequality, and social conflict within coastal communities," the petition reads.