Sectoral Oversight Committee summons Fisheries Ministry officials over poaching by Indian fishers

By Saman Indrajith

The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Alleviating the Impact of the Economic Crisis has instructed the Fisheries Ministry to furnish a report on how to tackle the problem of Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

The directive was given when the Committee chaired by MP Gamini Waleboda recently had a meeting with the representatives from the Ministry of Fisheries, officials from institutions under the Ministry and representatives of the fishing community in the North and East.

The representatives of fishermen associations said poaching by Indian fishermen in the northern seas had created a lot of problems for them. They said the illegal fishing methods used by the Indian fishers in the Sri Lankan seas had caused immense damage to the fishery resources and the environment. The damage caused by illegal fishing methods had not even been calculated, they said.

The committee also said Sri Lankan authorities had conducted surveys of marine resources within 24 nautical miles from the coast, except in the Northern Province. That was not acceptable, Waleboda said.