News

Mahinda's law of the sea

Southern fishermen allege minister favouring foreign craft

By Nalaka Nonis and Hisham Hilaly

Thousands of fishermen in the Southern Province have been badly affected with the 'foreign craft' conquering the fishing territories of local fishermen and damaging their fishing gear including their craft while plundering the fisheries resources of the country.

Fishermen in the south complain that their fish catch in comparison to past years has plunged due to restrictions on sea movements by the presence of foreign craft, many of them Chinese.

They say the foreign vessels seem to have little or no regard for the safety and other interests of local fishermen though the country's fisheries resources are rightfully theirs.

The fishermen say the unkindest cut is the attitude of the Fisheries Ministry, which they allege is refusing to see their plight.

"We are badly affected because the foreign craft fish in our territories illegally and catch our fish. We cannot compete as they use most sophisticated technology. Sadly, our own officials are ignoring this problem," a Galle fisherman lamented.

The Government, which issues licences for foreign vessels, also permits the vessels to unload some varieties of fish in Sri Lanka. The licence lays down some limits but local fishermen claim the foreign vessels often disregard those limits and fish anywhere.

They also say that though the foreign craft are permitted to catch only the bigger fish, they catch even the smallest fish with their modern gear and the local fishermen are left with little.

"Chinese vessel sinks local boat"

Mid-sea casualty: A local boat allegedly damaged by a Chinese vessel. Pix by M.A. Pushpakumara

In one of the most serious incidents of allegedly deliberate collisions at sea, a Chinese fishing craft reportedly hit a local boat recently, nearly killing the four fishermen on board and sinking the boat.

Owner N. W. Padmasiri said that it was clear to him that the collision was deliberate and their lives were saved because they were rescued by two other local craft which were nearby.

He said a complaint had been made to the police but as in other cases it remained on paper. Mr. Padmasiri said his loss was estimated at about Rs. 300,000.

Another major problem faced by the fishermen is the frequent damage caused to their craft and gear through collisions which the fishermen allege are often not accidental but deliberate.

They claim that in other instances foreign trawlers cut off the nets of long lines of the local fishermen.

"We often find our nets and long lines cut because the foreign trawlers want the territories in which they are fishing to be cleared from everything. So we are forced not to fish when they are around," Hikkaduwa fisherman Sunil Warushawithana said.

Another fishermen Ranjan Ravindra said his 1.2km drift net had been slashed into by a foreign craft and he had noted its identification number. Mr. Ravindra said he had made a complaint to the harbour police but little or no action had been taken and he had received no compensation for the Rs.60,000-loss he suffered.

He said he knew of at least three other local craft which had suffered a similar fate the same day and as far as he knew they too got little by way of relief.

The fishermen say the fear of deliberate collisions caused by foreign vessels have added to the danger and risk they usually take in venturing out to sea even on bad weather days because they cannot afford to stay away.

"Specially at night we have been forced to fish in fear and suspense because at any time a foreign vessel might come and crash into us.

This has further curtailed our opportunities and our catch," Galle fisherman B.P. Gamini said.

Some of the local fishermen charged that Fisheries Minister Mahinda Wijesekara was treating them like poor relatives while the foreign craft were getting royal treatment.

They claim that their rights were being taken away and given to foreigners for a few more dollars.

According to the new regulations, Hembili (ring) net fishing adopted by Southern fishermen is to be prohibited completely while earlier this mode of fishing was prohibited only within seven miles off the Southern shores.

The Hembili net having rings of iron at the bottom is used to encircle shoals of fish. Once the fish are encircled, the rings are collected together through a rope and the net then appears as a purse from which the fish are taken out.

The fishermen said the total prohibition of their popular Hembili net is part of the ministry's agenda to give more to the foreigners and less to the poor local fisherfolk.

They said that with the use of Hembili nets, they could catch the fish known as Russle's Scad or Linna in deep waters and use it as a bait to catch the popular yellow tuna or Kelawalla. They alleged that what the ministry was doing amounted to giving the foreign vessels the sole authority to catch Russle's Scad, which were then used by them as a bait for the Kelawalla catch.

The local fishermen also said that though the ministry had often promised to set up a coast guard service for the protection of the locals, little action had been taken to implement it.

A serious waste of fisheries resources has also been noted in the southern seas, with the alien craft throwing away fish other than their favourite Linnas, the bait of Kelawalla.

Lenawa (Rainbow runner), Pothuboraya (Trigger fish), Paremuwa (Blue seachub) and Alaguduwa (Frigate Tuna) are some of the fish that are thrown away once the foreign fishermen pick their favourite Linna.

Fishermen said hundreds of tons of fish were caught and then discarded by the foreign craft thus drastically bringing down the overall fisheries productivity of the country.

The fishermen alleged that at least two foreign craft were using huge balls at the bottom of their nets, thus destroying coral reef and other aquatic resources.

The fishermen said that if the police were inactive, the treatment they got from District Fisheries Officers was no better.

They charged that some of those officers appeared to be puppets of those who were trying to give foreign craft a bigger domain. In addition to the overall damage, they said the crisis had also brought about party politics to create more trouble in the fishing waters.

They claim that party supporters were being used to project a wrong picture of the fisher folk who were protesting against the marginalisation of the locals.

The fishermen said that with little or no help on the horizon, they were now coming to Colombo with about 10,000 supporters for a protest campaign on Friday opposite the Fort Railway station.

Essentially, they will demand that Minister Mahinda Wijesekera must immediately stop foreign craft from plundering the country's fisheries resources and driving local fisher folk into desperation and poverty.

Minister sees JVP hook and line

Facing a storm of charges by local fisherfolk, Minister Mahinda Wijesekara claimed there were no foreign fishing craft in local waters and he had no personal business with any foreign craft as alleged by some.

The minister fired back by accusing some JVP elements of provoking sections of the fisherfolk as part of their personal vendetta against him. The minister denied allegation that part of the fish caught by foreign craft as going into the hands of his colleagues when it should have gone to the Fisheries Corporation as laid down in the permits.

He said foreign craft which had licences to fish in the country were allowed to export a variety called 'Sashimi' to Japan and another variety to European countries while the rest should be given to the Fisheries Corporation here.But fishermen alleged that no fish had been given to the corporation and instead it had gone to some political "catchers" who were marketing it at the Pettah fish market.

Fisheries Department G. Piyasena said licences had been issued to about 80 foreign craft but fishermen claimed the number was near a 200.


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