Plan to grant licences to limited number of Indian trawlers: Namini Wijedasa, a journalist reports

The Sri Lanka Government is considering a proposal to issue permits to a limited number of Indian trawlers in an attempt to minimise mass-scale illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in sovereign seas by Tamil Nadu boats.

However, the proposal — which has been floated by the Indian side several times in the past as a solution to IUU fishing by their fishermen — is likely to be resisted by officials, fisher associations, exporters and others on the Sri Lankan side.

Defence Ministry Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi confirmed that the option of introducing a licensing system was being explored. “We are now working on that,” he told the Sunday Times. “We have not finalised it. It is a very sensitive issue for both sides, India and Sri Lanka.”

Technical proposals will be drawn up and submitted to the Indian Government through diplomatic channels, Mr. Hettiarachchi said, declining to give further details. He maintained that the issuance of fishing licences between India and Sri Lanka was not new.

In 1976, provisions were incorporated into the maritime boundary agreement binding the two countries to issue permits for up to six Sri Lankan vessels to fish in the Wadge Bank, south of Kanyakumari, for three years and subject to the total fish catch in any one year not exceeding 2000 tons. The Wadge Bank had been a traditional fishing ground of Sri Lankan fishermen but they lost access to it when it was declared to be within India’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

A close aide to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also said the Government was “working on” the concept of a licence scheme but that there was nothing concrete yet.

Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said the Defence Secretary had mentioned the proposal. “It has been put forward as an idea and it is not necessarily a bad one,” he explained. “At present, 2,000 to 3,000 Indian trawlers fish in our waters. The aim is to reduce this to about 250 and to issue licences to them. But we must first speak to our people, especially our fisher associations. If they agree, we will implement it.”

Fisheries Ministry Secrertary Mangalika Adikari said her office had not received a formal request. In the past, officials from Sri Lanka’s fisheries sector had stood firmly against moves to authorise any Indian trawlers to fish legally in local waters.
“The policy has been that Sri Lanka will not issue licences for industrial mechanised bottom trawling,” a senior official said, requesting anonymity. The Indian boats, most of them owned by rich Tamil Nadu businessmen with strong political connections, have trespassed into Sri Lankan waters for several decades, ravaging the seabed with their heavy trawls.

Sri Lankan fisher associations also opposed the suggestion to grant licences to Indian trawlers when it came up at talks with Indian fisher associations last year. However, officials like Defence Secretary Karunaratne feel that it is one way of breaking the stalemate on the issue, pending moves by the Indian Government to divert its fishermen towards deep sea expeditions.