SL awaits ...
At an Information Department news briefing he said the government had taken a series of corrective measures to compel the EU to withdraw the punitive yellow card issued over the Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing alleged to have been carried out by Sri Lankan fishermen in the international waters.
The corrective measures include amendments to the Fisheries Act to prevent illegal fishing and installing Vessel a Monitoring System (VSM) on 4,200 multi-day fishing crafts. The VSM will provide round-the-clock data to the monitoring unit of the Fisheries Ministry on the movement, distance and position of the trawlers and give an alarm when the vessel crosses the maritime boundaries of other countries.
The EU issued a yellow card to Sri Lanka last November and threatened further action unless corrective measures were taken to prevent IUU.
“I was able to convince European Commissioner Maria Damanaki during my recent discussion with her about the steps taken by Sri Lanka to prevent IUU fishing. Some members of the EU personally told me that the European Parliament holds an extremely negative attitude on Sri Lanka and therefore it will be big task to convince the EU to have the yellow card withdrawn,” the minister said.
He said the EU had bilateral agreements with Japan and the US with regard to the fisheries industry and the danger would arise if the EU banned fish exports from Sri Lanka to the EU and this prompted US and Japan to follow suit. This would deprive us of a highly lucrative market for our fish, which brought nearly Rs.9 billion in foreign exchange to the country last year especially by exporting tuna.
The EU issued a Yellow Card warning last year to Sri Lanka following complaints that 11 Sri Lankan vessels had intruded into international waters in 2011 in violation of the international maritime boundary laws. The minister said EU was pleased with the measures taken by Sri Lanka and that the Director General would make her recommendations to the European parliament this month.