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Poaching crisis: NPC tells Govt. to get tough
View(s):The Tamil National Alliance-controlled Northern Provincial Council (NPC) has urged the Government to take immediate measures to ensure the livelihoods of the Northern fisher folk, as Indian fishermen continue to rob marine resources in Lankan waters.
Participating at a Conference of Provincial Fisheries Ministers in Colombo on Thursday, NPC Fisheries Minister B. Deniswaran explained how a former war torn area was still finding it difficult to develop the fisheries sector because of the poaching by Indian fishermen.
“The invasion by the Indian fishermen and their prohibited fishing techniques such as bottom trawling are a grave threat to our sea resources. They not only violate the international borders to fish in our territory, but sometimes they even come closer to the shore,” he said.
The minister said the provincial administration would press the central government to intensify diplomatic efforts to resolve the issue which had severely affected the livelihoods of the northern fisher folk.
Thursday’s conference was organised by the Fisheries Ministry with a view to working out a joint process with the provincial administrations for the development of the fisheries sector.
Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera reiterated that the arrest of Indian poachers would continue despite the protests in Tamil Nadu. He said that as a direct result of illegal fishing methods used by Indian fishermen, there had been a gradual decline of fish resources in the Sri Lankan waters.
He pointed out Sri Lanka’s territorial sea was eight times as large as the land area, but sadly we were importing a large percentage of our fish requirements. “Unfortunately a larger percentage of the total fish requirement of the country is imported from foreign countries though we are possessed of a sea eight times larger than the land area,” he noted.
According to the Ministry, 77,000 metric tonnes of fish were imported in 2014 while the amount imported in 2015 exceeded 200,000 metric tonnes.