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| Sunday, 9 May 2004 |
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Lanka to join group conserving fisheries resources by Elmo Leonard Sri Lanka is one of eight countries in the Bay of Bengal, which, beginning mid-2005, would be bound under the international law of the oceans to collectively conserve its fisheries resources, in the face of globally dwindling stocks. Sri Lanka together with the other eight nations could draw funds for implementing the Bay of Bengal Project from the Global Environmental Facility under the World Bank, and Swedish International Development Agency. The law is already in force in most of the other 48 Large Marine Ecosystems of the globe. Under such bindings, scientists periodically determine fisheries resources of geographical areas and allot quotas for given periods to each nation, on what quantities of fish of each species they should catch. Monitors at fisheries harbours of nations coming under this law determine the catch made, and no more is allowed. This law, according to Director of Quality Control, Ministry of Fisheries, H. S. G. Fernando is followed by developed nations, an example being the EU nations, covering the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Scandinavian seas. European fishermen often protest that their scientists are too stringent in allocating quotas, but their politicians have no say in the matter. Leslie Joseph, National Consultant, who drew up Sri Lanka's report of marine resources, for the Bay of Bengal programme, thinks that when the plan for sustainable resources for this eco-system is implemented, there would be no more feuds between Sri Lanka and India on fishing rights in the Palk Straits. "When the Indians finish their quotas for the year, they would have to lay off," Joseph said. But Fernando, who with Dr. D. S. Jayakody of the National Aquatic Resources Development Agency are local delegates for the Bay of Bengal programme, thinks that the law is more easily enforced in the West, than by the Bay of Bengal countries, where the teeming millions, make and break rules, disregarding laws which conform to the common good. |
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