With a coastline of 6,000 km and an exclusive economic zone extending 200 nautical miles yielding an annual catch of four lakh tonnes of seafood alone, the stakes are indeed too high to forego especially when the subcontinental waters are supposed to be the richest in marine bio-diversity.

Contrary to popular perception that it's only in the waters near Gujarat or in Tamil Nadu where south Asian fishermen get caught by foreign patrols, coast guard officials say people from as far as Thailand and Taiwan have been caught with their trawlers in Indian waters.

While it's only 190 Indian and 143 Pakistani fishermen whose release made headlines during the resumed Indo-Pak dialogue recently, official figures say that this year alone the coast guard apprehended 32trawlers with 294 crew eating into the Indian pie.

But for the hundreds caught, there are many more who are let off after preliminary warnings and ensuring that they are innocent fishermen who have lost their way, says a senior coast guard official adding, "it's not as if we are out to catch every person who strays into alien waters.''

But the sea off the Gujarat coast is so rich in prawns that during the peak season between November and February people from southern India camp in Okha and hundreds of boats can be spotted in the region.

"The region being so rich in seafood, trespassing is natural,'' observes the official adding that apart from air surveillance, a coast guard ship patrols the area to prevent untoward incidents and drive anti-social elements away.

During November, immediately after 190 Indian fishermen were released, 15 fishermen in five boats were captured by Pakistan's maritime security agency off the Saurashtra coast, says Mahesh Desai of the Gujarat Vahanvatu and MacchimarSangh.

Desai says illiteracy among the small fishermen is the biggest reason for their falling into alien nets.

Each boat venturing into the sea there has to display the country flag and carry its registration papers for complete identification of the crew in addition to the basic guiding equipment like compass and the all important fishing kit.

A tab is generally kept on the area upto 150 nautical miles with the help of radar and fisherfolk venturing deeper still are cautioned.

But the temptation is too high to resist and they sneak deeper to get caught if they continue to ignore the warnings. While most get back, others are caught and taken to the nearest port to be booked according to the law of the land, says the official.

The punishment, in India, could invite a confiscation of the vessel and a jail term depending on the inventory seized and a fine upto Rs 5 lakh.

While the law takes its own course and many a time the trawlers and crew are let off after payment of the fine, it acquirespolitical overtones when the respective fishing associations in Ahmedabad and Karachi or NGOs lobby for their cause with their external affairs ministry.

Desai says that demarcation of the maritime boundary between India and Pakistan would help to solve the problem to a great extent.

"Therefore, we have requested the national Human Rights Commission of India to take up the issue of demarcation of waters between the two nations in the interest of the common fishermen.''

But Coast Guard officials say fishermen are also caught near the Tamil Nadu coast even though India has no maritime dispute with Sri Lanka.

The case of Tamil fishermen being apprehended by Sri Lankan navy has been taken up several times by the politicians there.

Except for Pakistan and Bangladesh, India has settled its maritime boundaries with the littoral states in the Indian ocean, says Commodre Uday Bhaskar, deputy director, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA).

Both Bhaskar and the Coast Gurad official are of theview that money being the bottomline, demarcation or no demarcation, fishermen will always drift towards the catch, getting caught is part of the game.

More than demarcation, its better management that's the need of the hour, says the Coast Guard official, who has patrolled the coast for over two decades now. Better management, according to him, entails education and awareness at a mass level.

While fishing is an all time activity in the southern waters, at the onset of the peak season off Gujarat, pamphlets and leaflets in Hindi and local vernacular enlisting the dos and don'ts for the fishermen are distributed widely to apprise them of the danger of overstepping the line.

Those on small vessels are advised to stay near the better equipped larger boats and trawlers and keep in groups to avoid getting lost on the high seas, he says.

The local authorities in collaboration with the local fisheries associations are trying to inform the fishermen, he says. But when the fishes beckon, boundaries arelost.