Sri Lanka is considering a proposal to set up a fully integrated fishing vessel monitoring and fisheries protection programme to fight poaching, reports Chandani Jayatilleke.
There are an estimated 600 IUU vessels fishing in the island's EEZ at any one time, says John Church, a fisheries and maritime security expert. Mr Church has developed and proposed a programme integrating a Vessel Monitoring System, a satellite-based system for Monitor Control and Surveillance of All Vessels, and Fisheries Management Protection Programme.
A fisheries management and protecting programme would also generate income through license revenue that could be used to develop harbours, storage and cold rooms, as well as find overseas markets, Mr Church said. Financial consequences of IUU include loss of foreign licence revenue, transhipment revenue, loss of landing fees, and fish processing revenue.
A VMS could provide co-operative tracking of Sri Lankan vessels which would be equipped with satellite tracking devices while the control centre could monitor up to 3,000 vessels with a personal computer based system. To fight poaching, though, a satellite-based monitoring, control and surveillance system would be needed. This would take a wide area view of the whole EEZ and identify all vessel traffic in the EEZ, not just those equipped with VMS, Mr Church said.
