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IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers: Lankan fishermen cast net on Modi
Sri Lanka loses billions of rupees in export income annually due to the plunder of its fisheries resources by Indian fishermen who use internationally condemned IUU fishing methods
Northern fishermen used Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka to reiterate their long standing demand for an immediate end to illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lanka waters.
In a petition to the Indian High Commissioner Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the past and present presidents of fishermen’s cooperatives and fisheries organisations of Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Mannar requested the High Commissioner to find time in Prime Minister Modi’s Vesak schedule to discuss the hardships faced by Sri Lanka’s northern fishermen and their families due to the relentless IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lanka’s waters.
Mr. Modi was here on Thursday and Friday to participate in the 14th United Nations Day of Vesak.
In their letter to the High Commissioner, the fishermen’s leaders explained that despite regular bilateral meetings, and multiple ‘fishermen to fishermen’ dialogues and repeated pledges by New Delhi and Chennai to end IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lankan waters, thousands of Tamil Nadu trawlers continue to cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings, destroying the lives and livelihoods of 20,000 small scale Sri Lanka fishermen in the north.
In a policy brief published in 2015, Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan a development economist and Principal Researcher at the Point Pedro Institute of Development estimated that as much as six billion rupees (US$ 41 million) is being lost directly by the fisheries sector in northern Sri Lanka, due to IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lankan waters.
Indirectly, another six billion rupees is being lost by Sri Lanka’s seafood export industry, as the bulk of the prawns, crabs and cuttlefish are illegally harvested by Tamil Nadu trawlers.
Kilinochchi Rural Fisheries Organisation Josep Francis told me recently that while Sri Lanka’s northern fishermen welcomed the various forms of assistance provided by the Government of India to rebuild livelihoods of families affected by the civil conflict, the most effective way to rebuild the lives and livelihoods of 200,000 families dependent on fishing in the north is to immediately end IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lankan waters.
Sri Lankan fishermen in the north were not the only ones calling on Prime Minister Modi to take up the issue of IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu trawlers in Sri Lankan waters. On Friday, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M. K. Stalin issued a statement, demanding that Prime Minister Modi should use his Sri Lanka visit to talk about the issue, which he said was plaguing both countries. He urged the Indian Prime Minister to find a permanent solution to the problem.
Fishing communities, the seafood industry and government officials in Sri Lanka are well acquainted with the internationally condemned IUU fishing practices and their implications. The European Union (EU) Regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) entered into force on 1 January 2010. In the preamble to the Regulation, the European Commission (EC) states that IUU fishing depletes fish stocks, destroys marine habitats, distorts competition, puts honest fishers at an unfair disadvantage, and weakens coastal communities, particularly in developing countries. In October 2014 the European Commission (EC) banned the import of all Sri Lankan seafood products into the European Union (EU), due to IUU fishing by Sri Lanka’s high sea fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean.
Some 68 percent of Sri Lanka’s seafood products were exported to EU countries in 2014. The EU imposed a ban on Sri Lanka’s fisheries exports after it found Sri Lanka’s high seas fishing vessels were adopting IUU fishing methods for fishing in the Indian Ocean. As a result, Sri Lanka’s seafood export earnings declined by 35.5 percent. The seafood sector lost revenues equivalent to 13.4 billion rupees (US$ 89 million).
On February 5, this year, two Indian high seas fishing vessels, Al-Ameen and the Mermaid, left for fishing from Kochi (Kerala) with a crew of 32 Indian fishermen on board. On March 1, the two vessels were arrested by a British marine patrol vessel for illegally fishing in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) waters. This is not the first time that Indian high seas fishing vessels have been arrested for IUU fishing in BIOT waters.
This is not the only instance of IUU fishing by Indian fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean. On March 26 this year, 19 Indian fishing vessels with 100 fishermen on board were arrested for IUU fishing in Pakistani waters in the Gulf of Kutch.
In March last year, the Bangladesh Navy arrested two Indian trawlers and the 28 crew for IUU fishing in Bangladeshi waters.
In November 2014, M. Ilango, Chairperson of the National Fishworkers Federation in India, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Modi, urging the government of India to take measures to release 650 Indian fishermen languishing in jails in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar on charges of IUU fishing in those countries’ waters.
Last week the Sri Lanka fishermen leaders in the north also wrote to Ambassador Tung-Lai Margue, the head of the EU’s delegation to Sri Lanka and Maldives. They asked why the EU has not issued a yellow card to India when IUU fishing by Indian vessels in the Indian Ocean is well documented.
As soon as EU imposed the ban on Sri Lankan seafood exports, the Sri Lankan Government and the Sri Lankan seafood industry worked unstintingly to put in place regulations and monitoring, surveillance, control and catch reporting systems to comply with international law. Within 15 months, Sri Lanka’s fishing industry rose from being a pariah to a proponent of responsible fishing practices in the Indian Ocean.
Numerous and worthy attempts by fishermen, civil society groups, politicians and governments — locally, nationally and bilaterally — have so far failed to find a solution to IUU fishing by Tamil Nadu vessels in Sri Lankan waters. Maybe, as the northern fishermen believe, a solution could be found if the EU threatens India with a ban and pressurise New Delhi to crack down IUU practices by its fishermen.