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Northern sea cucumber farmers in Chinese joint venture soup
A section of the large sea land area fenced off by the Chinese joint venture for sea cucumber farming
Northern fishing communities are up in arms against a Chinese joint venture company because it has taken over acres of sea-land to harvest sea cucumber, severely limiting the space for local fishermen to engage in the same business.
As part of an extension to its sea cucumber hatchery, the Chinese joint venture has set up a baby sea cucumber nursery in Kowtharimunai, a northern coastal village in the Pooneryn Divisional Secretariat.
Pasaiyoor Fishermen Federation Chief P. Mathan: Local sea cucumber farmers cannot compete with the Chinese joint venture company
Pasaiyoor Fishermen Federation Chief P. Mathan told the Sunday Times that the new nursery would pose a livelihood threat to local businesses which ran their sea cucumber farms with limited facilities and capital.
“Compared to the Chinese joint venture, our investments are nothing. The company uses sophisticated nets and methods while we struggle to stay afloat in the business,” Mr Mathan said, pointing out that the company was set up largely to supply baby sea cucumbers to local farms.
Meanwhile, the fencing off of acres of sea lands for sea cucumber harvesting is shutting out the traditional fishermen, particularly prawn harvesting, from pursuing a livelihood.
According to the Company Registrar, the Chinese joint venture company, Gui Lan (Pvt) Ltd, has been registered as a private limited liability company with a registered address in Negombo with two Chinese and a Sri Lankan being named as directors in April 2016.
The joint venture was started off as an artificial sea cucumber hatchery where baby animals were nursed up to four months before they were sold to commercial farms run by locals. It would take at least ten months for a sea cucumber to mature and ready for export. The price is fixed from Rs 1,200 to Rs. 1,500 a kilogram, depending on the size — 25 cms the average — of a sea cucumber.
While the company was continuing its operations at Ariyalai in Jaffna, the Fisheries Department in 2017 filed legal action against it as it had not obtained a permit from the National Aquaculture Development Authority of Sri Lanka (NAQDA). When the case was taken up in the Jaffna Magistrate’s Courts, the magistrate ordered that the baby sea cucumbers be released to the nearby waterways.
To obtain NAQDA approval, a company or a person involved in the business needs to secure ‘No Objections’ consent from the area’s fishermen group, the Divisional Secretary (DS) for land use, the Department of Fisheries in addition to an environmental assessment report from Department of Coast Conservation and Coastal Resource Management.
It has come to light that the joint venture has failed to secure the NAQDA permit before it set up the sea cucumber nursery at Kowtharimunai in Pooneryin, a few kilometres away from its Ariyalai hatchery.
The Vinayagar Fishermen Co-operative Society, the local fishermen group in Pooneryn, rejected reports that it had granted its consent for the construction of the Kowtharimunaisea cucumber nursery.
Confirming the society’s statement was Pooneryn Divisional Secretary S.C. Krishnendran. He said he came to know about the company’s Kowtharimunai extension only through media reports and no such applications were submitted to the local fishermen body seeking its consent.
“We were not aware of this new nursery. There is a mechanism in place to follow when seeking approval for commercial use of state lands. The Divisional Secretary’s Land Use Committee consisting of stakeholders needs to approve the project. But these procedures were not followed by the company,” he said.
Jayantha Chandrasoma, Secretary to the State Ministry of Fisheries, told the Sunday Times the joint venture company was one of the two sea cucumber hatcheries in the Northern Province, meeting the export demand for sea cucumber harvest in the region. The other hatchery is state-owned and it started operations in Mannar just three months ago.
“Since there is a growing demand for sea cucumber in the export market, the Ministry has taken steps to promote sea cucumber farming among the local fisherfolk community to support their livelihood and bring foreign exchange to the country. The Chinese joint venture is not engaged in farming. Its operation involves the hatchery and the nursery to meet the locals’ demand,” Mr. Chandrasoma said.
Commenting on the recent protests by local fishing communities against the new Kowtharimunai nursery, the secretary said he believed the locals would benefit from the company as it would, by sharing its technological expertise with them, be helping them to obtain bigger harvests and earn more income from exports at higher prices.
Sea cucumbers ready for exports
When asked about the company’s failure to obtain NAQDA approval, the secretary said the application was still under consideration by NAQDA, though it went ahead and fenced off two acres of shallow sea land and erected a shed.
Mr. Chandrasoma said, “The Fisheries Ministry also has taken steps to ban the overexploitation of wild sea cucumber cultivation from the sea directly. Instead, we want to promote breeding sea cucumbers in hatcheries to avoid depletion of this marine resource in our waters.”
In the wake of the fishing community’s protests, Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda this week called for a report from NAQDA officials and announced that a final decision would be taken after he makes an inspection tour to the farm in the coming days.
When the Sunday Times sought the company’s comments, a spokesman said the company would not speak to the media.
