SL's annual fish export profit Rs 21 B

Ridma DISSANAYAKE

Sri Lanka earns over 21 billion rupees by exporting fish to European countries a year and plans are in place to increase export earning to Rupees 50 billion in 2013, said Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratne yesterday.

The Sri Lanka national fisheries sector development strategy for 2011-2013 has been formulated based on the Mahinda Chinthana Idiri Dakma.

The Minister said that fisheries were one of three thrust areas for development in Sri Lanka's current development effort. The others being Tourism and Urban areas.

Minister Senaratne was addressing the press conference after the inauguration of the Ministerial level session of consultative meeting on Indian Ocean Fisheries and Tuna 2011 convened by the Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Co-operation(IOMAC) Secretariat hosted by the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry in collaboration with the National Aquatic Resources Agency (NARA), at the Galadari Hotel. The meeting which started on February 07, concludes today (12).

Sri Lanka has traditionally fished for Tuna since medieval times and would continue to depend on Tuna and related species as the back born of Sri Lanka's marine fishery, Minister said.

"About 30 years ago, Indian Ocean fisheries were subjected to a rapid transformation. Previously unknown exploitation of our fish stocks principally Tuna were taken in enormous quantities with the use of large-scale fishing vessels of high capacity", Minister Senaratne said.

There had been a Tuna commission practically in every ocean and Sri Lanka belonged to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission(IOTC). But, because of the Sri Lankan fishery industry's deterioration, it had been underestimated by the IOTC, he said. The Minister noted that in this consultative meeting, 07 decisions were adopted relating to the fishery industry and such decisions would be implemented to promote the local fishery industry.

During this year, Sri Lankan Government had enhanced its support for IOMAC programs through the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry, to support activities of this nature, which would protect the national interest in a collective framework, he added.

Indonesian Ambassador Prof Hasjim Djalal,Kenyan Fisheries Minister, Amason Jeffah, Sudan Animal and Fisheries Resources Minister Faisal Hussain, Maldivian Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Rasheed Hassan, Thailand Advisor to Agriculture and Co-operatives, Minister Tamarat Wanglee and Sri Lankan IOMAC Secretary General and NARA Chairman, Dr Hiran W Jayawardene participated.