News
EU official mum on Indo-Lanka fishing issue
A senior European Union official who was in the country this week was non-committal on the fish and marine products traded by India which is harvested illegally in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters
At a meeting with the media in Colombo on Thursday Mr. Ugo Astuto Actg. Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific of the European External Action service refused to comment when asked on the EU’s position regarding India’s trading of marine products that are illegally caught in Sri Lanka’s side of the Palk Strait.
Mr. Astuto was in the country this week to attend the 19th meeting of the EU-Sri Lanka Joint Commission where he reminded the government of taking corrective measures regarding Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing methods in the local fishing industry if the export ban to the European market is to be relaxed.
Mr. Astuto however added that the EU has taken serious note of a road map submitted by Colombo and urged the government to address the shortcomings at the earliest.
“The Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has promised to submit a progress report to the EU in May,” he said.
The Government, for its part has assured the EU that it would work at the earliest to implement the international obligations in order to have the ban relaxed an official said yesterday.
“Among some 27 international resolutions the EU is insisting that Colombo start to immediately instal the Vessel Monitoring System (VSM) on the boats and the inspection scheme to determine whether the method of fishing was legal and harvested according to the required regulations,” Fisheries and Aquatic Secretary Nimal Hettiarachchi told the Sunday Times.
Sri Lanka was knocked off the EU export list in mid January this year following repeated warnings that the local industry was actively involved in Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) methods of fishing and urged the government to take corrective measures but were however ignored, Mr. Hettiaarachchi said.
He added that the government had already started with the VSM project which would be completed by early September or earlier depending on the availability of the devices and other technicalities.
“The inspection scheme is already in place where those actively involved in the industry are monitored on a 24-hours basis by the Fisheries Department throughout the country.
The inspection scheme concentrates largely during the berthing period of the vessels to determine if the proper methods were used for fishing. The EU is very determined on this issue”, Mr. Hettiaarachchi said.
He added that some 1500 multi-day fishing vessels have already been listed to receive the VMS facility that will guide their course path during that stay in the open sea and also prevent them from moving into illegal waters.
The EU was the single largest export market for Sri Lanka’s fish other marine products raking in some Euro$ 74 million annually, he said.
Since the ban however the country has been exporting to Japan, Russia and across the Atlantic to the US, Mr. Hettiaarachchi added.