No Lankans engaged in IUU fishing in UK

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne has dismissed accusations by UK that Sri Lankan fishermen engage in Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing around the shores of British isles. Addressing a meeting at the international summit on Tuna Fisheries Management in Brisbane, Australia, he said it was devoid of truth and unfounded.

The summit was held with the participation of ministers from the member states of the Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO). The organization is dedicated to establish sustainable fisheries development across the globe by combating unregulated fishing in any region.

The inter-governmental organization, Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC), which is mandated to manage tuna and tuna-like species in the Indian Ocean and adjacent seas and RFMO conducted the summit.

RFMO British representatives had raised that Sri Lankan fishermen are in the practice of crossing maritime boundaries and fishing around British and French islands.

Minister Dr Senaratne said the British representatives accused Sri Lanka of engaging in illegal unreported and unregulated fishing with prohibited fishing gear to catch fish. “They also said we are in the practice of catching smaller fish,” Senaratne said.

”I rejected their claims as unfounded and said that there has not been a single such incident where Sri Lankan fishermen had gone as far as coastal areas of British isles to fish in their waters,” the Minister said.

The Minister had reportedly said at the summit that although he had families of fishermen coming to discuss their problems once a week, he has never come across a single complaint from these families that their folk have strayed into the seas of a Western country.

“There has not been any such case where our fishermen has been arrested by the coastal authorities in these countries,” he had pointed out.

He had explained to Indian Ocean Tuna Commission’s Executive Director Alijantho Anganushi and the British delegation leader Dr Kris it was unfair to accuse Sri Lanka of any such IUU fishing around the coastal areas of a Western country. Dr Senaratne had pointed out that Sri Lankan fishermen have witnessed many modern Western trawlers fishing around Sri Lanka’s coastal areas.

Senaratne said there has been a lot of misunderstanding in the IOTC and other RFMOs of the Western countries with regard to IUU fishing.

“This is the result of Sri Lanka’s non-participation to the Commission’s annual summits for the last four years,” he said.

The Commission has reportedly admitted that there was no proper foundation to those charges that were repeatedly being levelled against Sri Lanka during its years of absence in the Commissions.