No Lisences to Foreign Fishing Vessels: Says, Ananda Peiris, Coordinator, Trincomalee district fisheries solidarity

"Where do we go, the Sri Lankan deep sea fishers for their fishing operations, once the foreign fishing vessels operate under Sri Lankan flags? We do not have enough fish to catch in our waters so we need to cross the boarders and attempt to catch fish for survival our boats, the multi day boat fishing industry.

Followed by the news paper article appeared in the Sunday Times, Ananda Peiris, the coordinator, Trincomalee District Fisheries Solidarity, has registered their resistance the fisheries department decision on licensing the joint fishing vessels operations under Sri Lankan flag.

Sri Lankan government, the fisheries department had introduced some regulations last year as the fisheries Act[Amended] no 2 of 2015 introducing new laws and regulations which imposed on Sri Lankan fishing vessels once they violated the International Maritime Boundaries.
The fine is some thing around 1.5 million rupees and or/ two years imprisonment.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/160103/news/policy-reversal-foreign-vessels-to-fish-under-lankan-flag-177400.html

Policy reversal: Foreign vessels to fish under Lankan flag

Foreign fishing companies are to be invited again to carry out fishing operations under the Sri Lankan flag, but under strict regulations, including an observer on board, a senior official said yesterday. Fisheries Director General M.C.L. Fernando told the Sunday Times that foreign vessels would have to adhere to regulations which had been gazetted and would be presented in Parliament next week for approval.

The move to invite foreign vessels comes after the new Government cancelled eight fishing licences issued to a Chinese company following allegations that some of its vessels were engaged in Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing methods and transferred their catch to a third party in mid sea.

The new regulations would also prohibit foreign vessels from transferring their catch to any other boat or port without prior approval from the Director General. Mr. Fernando said that due to these problems, no licences had been issued to foreign vessels, but now licences would be issued on a guarantee of responsible fishing practices.

Under the new regulations, the Director General would be authorised to deploy a scientific observer on the foreign vessel for inspection and data collection during fishing operations and to ensure no unauthorised fishing gear was carried.
Satellite-based Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) equipment also will be installed in the vessels to monitor their location and the data will be transmitted to the nearest monitoring centre, he said.