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| Sunday, 02 March 2003 |
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Crackdown on illegal fishing by Elmo Leonard Two destructive forms of fishing - dynamiting and using illegal purse-seine nets - will soon become non-bailable offences, with the offenders liable to face a seven-year jail term and a Rs 700,000 fine. Both these forms of fishing, which destroy fishing resources, are concentrated around the coasts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota, and are said to be increasing. These destructive activities are also very marked around the Trincomalee and Puttalam districts and, the practice, is growing all around the island of Sri Lanka. Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources, Mahinda Wijesekara, who is advocating stringent legislation to prohibit illegal methods of fishing, will present a new Bill in Parliament next month, where offenders will face stringent punishment. The Minister has also urged the police and fisheries officials to carry out several raids in the South. Some of the people apprehended have been produced before courts. Minister Wijesakara explained that it is the legitimate and traditional small-time fishermen who are affected by these acts which lead to a depletion of fisheries resources. Small-time fishermen were up in arms against the authorities for not putting an end to purse-seine fishing, which was introduced by the Fisheries Ministry in 1986. Now, the Ministry of Fisheries has stopped the issue of licences for purse-seine. Minister Wijesakara has set up a five-member-committee comprising three Attorneys-at-Law, Director General of National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA) Dr. D. S. Jayakody, and an official of the Fisheries Ministry to study the situation. Dynamiting fish resources kills all fish stocks within the range of the blast and, in the process, destroys valuable coral reefs. Purse-seine was permitted seven miles off the coast in the districts of Colombo, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Ampara and Trincomalee and, ten miles off the coast of Gampaha, Puttalam, Mannar, Mullaitivu and Jaffna districts. However, fishing companies claimed that since it was not feasible to carry out purse-seine fishing so far out at sea, they had operated closer to the shore, the Ministry's Legal officer, Ms Kumari Vithana, said. Purse-seine fishing close to the coast destroys a complete shoal of fish, together with the future generations, which are the stocks on which the small-time village fishermen depend, Director General of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, G. Piyasena said. The committee set up by the Fisheries Minister has recommended stringent legislation and use of a larger size of purse-seine fishing nets. |
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