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| Sunday, 29 December 2002 |
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EEZ rich in fishresources yield 2.5 to five tonnes catch per day : fishing in deep water by Elmo Leonard One of Sri Lanka's foremost fish exporters, Tropic Fishery (Pvt) Ltd, for the first time has ventured out into deep sea fishing within the country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), on a commercial basis. Under this method fishing is carried out within a depth of 150-400 meters which has not been explored so far, company's director Roshan Fernando said. The catch per day is estimated around 2.5 - 5 tonnes of fish and it is reaped within the 200 meter Sri Lankan fishing territorial waters. Already, the company has received a large number of orders from countries such as South Asia, South East Asia and European countries, far exceeding the quantity they catch. Once caught, the fish is chilled and within a few hours, air-freighted to respective countries. Tropic, makes it's catch using two 100 tonne vessels each equipped with 10,000 hooks within the depth of 150 to 400 metres at sea. "We are targeting the Grouper and Snapper species which has about 200 types. I have never seen some of the fish types, we are now catching. Initially, our target is a quarter kilogram per hook," he added. Sri Lanka's bottom line operations were hitherto, limited within the continental shelf of the island, utilising small-scale crafts with less than 100 hooks. Twenty years ago, a survey conducted by a Norwegian Research vessel revealed untapped fish resources available in the bottom line within the island's EEZ. The details of this survey are now with the National Aquatic Resource Agency (NARA) Colombo. "This resource could be the same, or may have increased in quantity, as it had has not been exploited for years," Fernando said. Tropic, which comes under the diversified Tess group of companies, has been surface longlining since 1996, for Tuna, and Bill fish species, utilising its two 100 tonne, 33 and 38 meters crafts, which the company owns. Tropic also operates 90 contracted vessels between 20 to 25 meters, utilising surface longliners. The Tropic catch includes 300 tonnes of Tuna per month. Tropic's 2001 exports exceeded $10 million, 60 percent was exported to Japan while 20 percent to were to European countries. In Europe, exports of Tropic fishery are purchased by Marks and Spencer supermarket chain and the Sainsbury chain in UK. The wholesale markets in Runges, France, Dutch and Scandinavia buy value added loins and fillets. |
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