Sri Lanka has received the assistance of three nations to expand its tuna fishing industry, reports Chandani Jayatilleke.
The countries sharing their funds, resources and expertise with Sri Lanka's ambitious tuna fishing development plans include Thailand, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.
Saudi Arabia is providing $300m to introduce a fleet of multi-day longline vessels, further strengthening the national fleet to about 3,400 multi-day boats. In this arrangement the two countries will share the profits equally.
Sri Lanka will also receive 500 vessels essential for deep sea fishing from Thailand, of which 200 will arrive by the end of this year.
Meanwhile the Philippines is sharing its expertise in introducing a fishery bank concept which aims at improving the lives of the fishing communities in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka has faced numerous threats and challenges from the developed nations as the island could not afford to compete with the other countries due to lack of finance and sophisticated fishing equipment, despite its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. Also, the prolonged conflict on the island has severely hampered the fishing industry of the North, Northeast, East and Southeast seas of the country.
"We are historically a tuna fishing nation and have played a vital role in the tradition and culture. We are concerned over the conservation of the ocean’s dwindling fish resources. As a responsible fishing nation, we have incorporated relevant conventions and regulations into the national legislation for better management in fishing industry," Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne said.
The Fishing Regulation Act of 1996 is mandatory for ‘No Indiscriminate Fishing Practices'. This includes purse seining and trawling which comb the ocean bed, destroying small fish, the next generation of reproductive fish and fish egg stocks.
Sri Lanka produces over 250,000mt of tuna annually. The industry provides direct employment to about 675,000 people comprising 175,000 in active fishing, 100,000 in associated service activities and 400,000 in the fish.
The island is a major exporter of yellow fin and big eye tuna. Its main buyers include the EU, the US, Japan and China and tuna brings an annual export revenue of $180m to the island nation. "We have the potential to increase our export earnings by many-folds and currently we are taking steps to develop the industry to make it one of the three top foreign exchange earners," the Minister said.
Within the EU, the United Kingdom is one of the top buyers of tuna from Sri Lanka. In its efforts to expand exports to the UK, Sri Lanka has also acquired the services of a top PR company in the UK- Bell Pottinger - to better position Sri Lanka as a key tuna exporter to the UK. Through this arrangement, several international retailers such as Sainsburys, Eurofish, M&S, and Tesco have assured Sri Lanka of increased stocks of imports.
At present, representatives from the UK are working on an assessment about the tuna fish industry in Sri Lanka - which will investigate several key features such as fishing methods, the quality of fishing harbours, cleanliness and the facilities in them.
A big share of the tuna requirement of the world is supplied by the Indian Ocean fishing. Sri Lanka is concerned that the popular yellowfin tuna is a “near threatened” species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The world’s commercially targeted fish are in decline mainly because of unsustainable fishing practices used by some of the developed countries.
Sri Lanka is also committed to working with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) as well as to be a responsible fishing nation. Seeking to address the issue of illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean, the Fisheries Ministry is supporting the other affected nations to draw up plans to tighten state-level
"We have raised this issue at different fora and now the Indian Ocean nations are getting together to address this issue in a strong manner," said Dr Senaratne, who is very enthusiastic about developing the island's fishing industry.
Although Sri Lanka possesses the necessary infrastructure and skilled human resources to sustain the tuna fishing industry which has spanned the coastline of 1,760km ( the second largest coast line in South Asia), providing further training in various aspects of better harvesting methods is a continuous activity here. "We conduct workshops for the fishermen on areas such as reducing losses and waste in longline fisheries, safety and quality of fish catching methods. We also train multi-day boat owners and operators on market diversification and sustainable development in the industry," says the Minister.
The island's per capita consumption of fish in 2009 was 11.4kg . The Ministry is working towards increasing this at least to 22kg by 2013 and, to achieve this target, total annual fish production has to be increased to 686,000mt.
