Beach seines to trigger fish price drop

Chamikara Weerasinghe

Fish prices are expected to go down with more people getting involved with beach seine (Ma-del) fisheries in the Northeast with the seas in the region being fully liberated for fishing activities by the Government.

Fisheries Ministry officials said they expect the revival of beach seine fisheries in the Northeast to contribute considerably to national fish production starting January next year.

The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ministry has established 44 harbours in Batticaloa and Wakarai to support the livelihood of traditional beach seine fishermen.

The number of beach seine harbours around the coastal belt has been increased to 819, Fisheries Ministry sources said. Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Department inspector D Weerakoon said beach seine fisheries provides the best kind of fish in terms of nutritional value.

Being an ancient gear yet widely used, beach seine nets are responsible for harvesting 35 percent of the country's fish production.

Beach seine fishermen catch around 70,000 metric tonnes of fish per annum. The harvest is expected to increase by several thousand metric tonnes with hundreds of fishermen in the Northern and Eastern Provinces starting to operate beach seines in the seas off Mannar, Batticaloa, Wakarai and Mullaitivu.

The seas in these regions have been liberated for beach seine fishing by the Government.

The fishermen are being given permits to operate beach seine nets at present. The Fisheries Department will be issuing permits by the end of the year.

Beach seine net owner Viraj Cheslin said that the nets are expensive and they are provided with bank loans by the Fisheries Ministry to buy them.

Around 400,000 fishermen and their families depend on beach seine fish catch.

"We are confident that we can contribute considerably to the national production. With the fish supplies from the Northern and Eastern Provinces, fish prices in Colombo are expected to drop thus benifiting consumers," he said.