By Amantha Perera
Indian trawlers are taking their toll on Northern Sri Lanka’s fishing sector, which is struggling to recover almost four years after a decades-long civil war.
“Since the conclusion of the civil war, Indian trawlers have been coming in closer and closer,” Maarten Bavinck, Director at the Amsterdam-based Centre for Maritime Research told IRIN, noting over half of the 5,000 trawlers based in Southern India are completely or seasonally dependent on Sri Lankan waters.
As many as 100,000 people, or 20,000 families, are dependent on fishing in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province, experts say.
Each day, hundreds of trawlers working out of the Southern Indian fishing ports of Rameshwaram and Nagampadam cross into Sri Lankan waters, heading especially for Palk Bay, which is known for its exceptionally rich fishing grounds.
In the late 1970s, the Indian fishing authorities in some areas – in an effort to protect local small fishermen – brought in the so-called ‘three-four day rule’, which ensures large trawlers stay in the harbour three days a week.
During their four days at sea, however, Indian trawlers routinely enter Sri Lankan waters, causing smaller Sri Lankan fishing boats to limit their fishing or not fish near the trawlers.
“Fishermen in Vadamarachchi, Jaffna District, go out to sea just 60 days a year, while in Pesalai, a fishing village in Mannar District, they go out 85 days,” Bavinck said.
“Normally, one would expect fishermen to go out for at least 200 days a year,” the expert said, adding many fishermen had no choice, but to find alternative work.
On average a fisherman in Northern Sri Lanka earns just over US$ 50 a month.
In some cases, fishermen were losing as much as half their yearly average income of US$ 600, research by Bavinck and two other colleagues, Joeri Scholtens and Anandan Soosai, indicated.
Nineteen per cent of the surveyed fishermen said their biggest concern was the encroaching trawlers, the research found.
“There still remain limited security restrictions on the use of certain Northern fishing harbours and deep-sea fishing. But more disturbing is the competition with Indian fishing trawlers that intrude into Sri Lankan waters,” said Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, a principal researcher at the Jaffna-based, Point Pedro Institute of Development.
“We simply cannot fish. They come in the hundreds and in bigger boats. The smaller boats can’t compete. If we do, they can deliberately damage our nets and gear,” said Aruldas, a fisherman from the village of Point Pedro in the Jaffna District.
He now restricts his fishing to shallow waters where the trawlers cannot operate. “It’s safer, but there are less fish and more and more people like me are coming here,” he said.
“In 1980, almost 30% of the country’s fish catch was caught in the Jaffna District,” Sarvananthan said.
In 2003, during a ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fishing accounted for 12% of the provincial economy. Today it accounts for three per cent – the same as in 2007 when war raged, according to research by Sarvananthan, based on figures released by the Central Bank.
Meanwhile, the catch by trawlers from Southern India has tripled in the last three decades, Bavinck said. Though a 463- km maritime boundary was agreed upon in 1976, many Indian fishermen still consider Sri Lankan waters their traditional fishing grounds, he added.
Compromise solution?
The two navies and the Indian Coast Guard patrol the region, but Bavinck believes only a change in the law will alter the situation.
In March 2011, the two governments set up a Joint Working Group on fishing that meets annually. “We are working towards a negotiated settlement, but we need their cooperation,” said Nimal Hettiarachchi, Director General, Sri Lanka Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, noting any workable solution needed the support of the south Indian fishing fleet.
On 22 January, a joint statement by the two countries affirmed that ‘the use of force could not be justified under any circumstances.’COURTESY:IRIN NEWS