The fisher people in the world celebrated World Fisheries Day on 21st November.
National Fisheries Solidarity Movement [NAFSO] celebrated world fisheries day at Negombo yesterday.
More than 250 fishermen and women attended the celebrations from 14 coastal and inland fishing districts in Sri Lanka.
Negombo people, lead by trade unions, NGOs, women organizations, religious groups were able to defeat the Sea Plane landing program at Negombo lagoon. NAFSO together with the leading groups of Sea Plane struggle in Negombo, were able to collect views and publish a Book Call "Meegamu Kalapu Satana" in Sinhala[Battle of Negombo Lagoon] too at the celebration.
More details will be available in the NAFSO main blog site.
The Mannar and Jaffna district fisheries federations celebrated the independently this year and the letter below is self explanatory to the Mannar action/s as District leader shared with us.
Also, interestingly the ministry of fisheries has organized the world fisheries day celebrations which has become officially recognized the WFD now.
Cheers!
Herman
Hon Min. Dr. RajithaSenarathna
Minister for Fisheries and Aquatic
Resources Development
Government Agent
Kachchery
Mannar
Strike
of Mannar District fishermen regarding the following issues on the coming
World
Fishermen Day of 21st November 2013
All the fishermen societies
and fishermen from Mannar district havedecided to carry outa fishing strike, by
ignoring the coming World Fishermen Day, in order to express to the world their
distress and unhappiness because their issues haven’t been taken seriously by
the relevant authorities over a long period of time. There are about forty
thousand fishermen from nine thousand families that rely on fishing for their
livelihood. These issues should not be difficult to resolveas these fishermen
feed the world by risking their lives. We request everyone to get together to
resolve their issues and satisfy their demands.
Key issues giving rise to the strike
The fishermen want the government to:
·
Prevent encroachment
by Indian trawlers
·
Act immediately
to gain the release of the Sri Lankan fishermen captured and imprisoned by the
Indian Government
·
Act to reduce the
encroachment of southern fishermen intoMannar fishing areas
·
Enforce the ban
on cylinder fishing in the Mannar fishing areas
·
Listen and
respond to our appeals for disaster relief
·
Continue the fuel
subsistence stamp cards
Prevent encroachment by Indian
trawlers
·
Our sea resources
are being destroyed by these trawlers’ fishing methods
·
Fishermen who
returned after the war aren’t able to fish freely
·
The significant
corals and sea reefs are also being destroyed
·
No resources are
going to be left behind for the future generations
·
Small scale
fishermen have totally lost their fishing occupation
·
Expensive fishing
nets and fishing equipment are also destroyed by these trawlers and no one has
received any compensation for this destruction and loss
·
Sea plants, which
are the main food resource for the fish, and also provide protection for the
fish, are also being demolished by these trawlers
·
Many millions of
rupee worth of sea resources are taken
away from our sea areas by these trawlers
·
Because of the
presence of these Indian trawlers, local fishing can effectively only be done
for “three days a week”
Act immediately to gain the release
of the Sri Lankan fishermen
·
Our government
has to take immediate action to gain the release of our Sri Lankan fishermen
from Mannar who were captured by the Indian government and accused
oftrespassing over the national border.
Act to reduce the encroachment of
southern fishermen into Mannar fishing areas
·
Because they come
in large numbers the southern fishermen set up camp on Mannar Island and process
and sell fish, taking away the livelihood of the local fishermen and creating
conflict with local fishermen
·
The southern
fishermen never obey the rules of the local fishermen societies
·
They never ask
for permission to carry out fishing activities in the fishing port
·
They form a
separate society and they do whatever they want to
·
When they go,
they never clean up after themselves, they just leave their temporary huts and
rubbish behind
·
The local
fishermen have to sit out the off season waiting for the fishing season to
start; when the fishing season starts again, all the southern fishermen arrive
and the locals have trouble catching enough fish to survive.
·
The local
fishermen, trying to recover from the effects of the three decades of war, rely
on the income from fishing as their only source of income. This encroachment of
southern fishermen is killing their livelihood and their chance of full
recover.
·
In the six months
of off season the local fishermen have to pawn their possessions and take out
loans, and rely on the fishing season to regain their possessions and pay off
loans. Unfortunately, the arrival of the southern fishermen makes this very
difficult.
·
Every year the
number of southern fishermen is gradually increasing, causing ever more
hardship for the local fishing community, sometimes even starvation.
Enforce the ban on cylinder fishing
in the Mannar fishing areas
·
Through the pass
system, the cylinder fishermen, designed for deep sea diving,are able to carry
out their diving activities and collect the sea cucumber, sea shells, etc in
Mannar waters.
·
Most of the
fishermen in Mannar are skin divers. This means that local skin divers who dive
without equipment are seriously outnumbered and have lost their livelihood.
·
The letter of
Assistant Commissioner of Fisheries dated 19 March 2013 stopped the use of
cylinder fishing in Mannar shallow waters for a while, but now they are coming
back.
Listen and respond to our appeals for
disaster relief
·
For many years
our fishermen have been facing serious natural disasters and many have lost
their fishing gear including boats, some their lives. In some seasons they have
faced continuous weather warnings. They have been asked to make claims and have
gone through the process of making claims, but have never received any of the
promised compensation.
Continue the fuel subsidy stamp cards
·
Since 16 February
2012 Mannar fishermen have been getting the fuel subsidy. They have been told
by authorities that the fuel subsidy stop in December 2013. Instead of the fuel
subsidy they have been told that they will receive a one-off gift of a set of
fishing nets as compensation. This change is not going to be adequate to assist
their current economic difficulties.
·
The Mannar
fishermen ask that the fuel subsidy be continued or else that fuel prices be
reduced.
Because all of these issues have been
continuing for a long time, many Mannar fishermen are in severe debt, some have
left fishing, some have committed suicide, and a significant number of them
have sought asylum in foreign countries.
So, as a representative of the Mannar
District fishermen community, I ask you to please consider all of our issues,
and we request you to take immediate action to resolve this unhappy situation.
Thank you
President,
Federation of Mannar District Fishermen
Societies
Copies:
1)
Hon. Chief
Minister C.V.Vikneswaran, Northern Province
2)
Hon. Minister P.Deniswaran
- Fisheries, Transport and rural development of Northern Province
3)
Asst. director
for fisheries – Fisheries department, Mannar
4)
Asst.
commissioner for cooperative development – Cooperative department, Mannar
5)
Organizer,
National Fisheries Cooperative council
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