DEVANANDA MOVES TO PREVENT ILLEGAL FISHING

In Palk Straits & Gulf of Mannar

Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda, who is a member of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s delegation to India, said yesterday that he would request Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to set up the Palk Straits and Gulf of Mannar Joint Marine Fisheries Resources Management Authority to deter illegal fishing and poaching.

The Prime Minister will head for New Delhi on a state visit for bilateral talks with the Indian leaders.

Minister Devananda told Daily Mirror that marine resources on the Indian side of the sea across the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Straits had been destroyed, prompting fishermen from India to encroach Sri Lankan waters. He said marine resources on Sri Lanka side would be exhausted unless remedial action was taken forthwith. “I am going to request the Indian side to establish such a mechanism. I will ask for a cessation of fisheries activities in these sea areas until it is set up,” he said.

The minister said he would nominate to this authority the Fisheries Ministry Secretary, the Director General of Fisheries, the Director General of the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency, the Secretary to the Northern Province Ministry of Fisheries and an academic from the Jaffna University and representatives of the fishermen’s associations.

A large number of Indian fishing trawlers engage in IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing) in Sri Lankan waters on certain days. According to navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Isuru Sooriyabandara, the number of encroachers spotted on a single day varies from 400 to 600. “They mainly come on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays,” he said.