Indo-Lanka fisheries meet postponed

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

The meeting of the Working Group on Fisheries of India and Sri Lanka, to be held in Colombo today to discuss the unlawful fishing and poaching crisis in the Palk Bay region, was postponed following a request by the Indian government.

The meeting was expected to find an amicable solution to the decade- long trawling in Sri Lankan territorial waters, which threatened the livelihood of fishermen in the North. State officials in Delhi have reportedly told the Sri Lankan External Affairs Ministry that the group is planning to include fisheries representatives from Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ministry Secretary Dr Damitha de Soyza said that this will be a short delay by the Indian working group. She said the meeting will enable the delegates of the two countries to amicably settle complex fisheries issues.

Asked to explain the complexity of local fishermen who get arrested in Indian waters, Dr Soyza said the number of fishermen getting arrested for straying into Indian waters is handful.

Besides being a major hindrance to over 150,000 fishermen in the North , where thousands of fishermen are trying to establish their livelihoods after the three decade war, trawling has played havoc in marine eco- systems, she said.

"It has become a conservation issue as well," she said.

According to Dr. Augustine Susai Siluvaithasan of the Department of Geography, University of Jaffna, if bottom trawling by Indian vessels , which is a banned fishing method in Sri Lanka, continued unabated, there will be no fish in the Sri Lankan side of the Palk Strait. Asked to comment how Sri Lanka treats Indian fishermen arrested for fishing in Sri Lankan waters, Dr Soyza said. 'We treat them humanely and release them without keeping them for months.

"This is one of the issues we plan to discuss at our joint Worker Group Meeting with the Indian officials,". "We have placed some of the matters before the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka and apprised Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh about most of the fisheries issues that the country is faced with," she added.

http://www.dailynews.lk/2011/10/07/news12.asp