Sri Lankans worried by Indian bottom trawling’s ‘fishtail effect’-by Samantha Perera

The graveyard of seized Indian fishing trawlers
(Pix by Samantha Perera )

Individuals arriving in Indian fishing trawlers not only steal the rich-fish harvest of Sri Lankans, but also dangerously damage the marine environment
Sri Lankan fishermen claim that when a couple of hundred Indian boats arrive they are unable to fight or resist them
Calls are made by the Sri Lankan fishing community for the authorities to pay attention to the severe environment pollution being created by bottom trawling activities
It is no secret that one of the chief entry points for drugs to Sri Lanka is via the sea routes connecting Talaimannar and Northern ports

Sri Lanka has been subjected to numerous foreign invasions since the beginning of its recorded history. Compared to the Portuguese, Dutch and English, the engagement with India, the island’s closest neighbour, is more consistent from a social, economic and cultural impact point of view. It is no secret that all these invaders have been attracted to the country’s tropical wealth like crops, spices, precious stones and natural resources. The latest form of this invasion has been taking place for the past two decades off the shores of Northern and Eastern provinces, where fishing vessels from Southern Indian coastal towns swarm to benefit from the rich marine resources of the island nation. The political authorities of the two neighbouring countries, which have arrived at consensus on many bilateral issues, have however failed to address this problem to date; hence it has not only neglected the woes of the northern fisherman, but also turned a blind eye to the devastating impact on the country’s rich marine environment.

Midnight invasion in Palk Strait

Multi-day trawler ‘Wasana 1’, which left Trincomalee Fisheries Harbour on a clear Friday evening in mid December last year was travelling at a steady speed of about four nautical miles per hour along the North Eastern coastline of Sri Lanka. Manned by four young seasoned seafarers, led by its 43-year-old skipper Dinesh, the 34.5 foot long Wasana 1 was a five tons weighing good sized trawler boat installed with all the modern communication and satellite navigation paraphernalia.
Having travelled about 100 nautical miles from Trincomalee towards the Northern seas for about 24 hours the skipper decided to give a break to the helm and lay anchor in the deep sea at a location, having Jaffna peninsula’s Kankesanthurai coast to its south and Nagapatnam coast of Southern India to its North West.
The skipper decided that it was an ideal spot to carry on their first round of trawling. This was going to be their first day of fishing in a multi-day trawling session. After fully laying the large net boatmen Udara (43), Suranga (35) and Kasun (33) were attending to various duties on board assigned to each of them. These tasks included checking the fishing gear, sorting the freezer compartment as well as preparing a meal to be consumed during the late night break.

It was just past midnight in the calm and clear night sea when Udara noticed a light in the form of a tiny dot appearing from the far off horizon. Thinking it to be a fishing vessel

he went about his business to be soon alerted by Suranga pointing at the night horizon where the speck of light had multiplied into many more.
Like a swarm of fireflies the light dots were fast becoming larger giving the only impression that they were advancing towards Wasana 1 or rather towards the Sri Lankan waters in the deep sea. Within moments the crew figured that about 200 brightly lit fishing vessels rushing like a storm was nothing but a fleet of powerful Indian fishing trawlers making yet another night invasion of trawling in the fish-rich Sri Lankan waters.
Shocked with terror as the advancing foreign vessels would go passing Wasana 1 and could badly damage their trawling net, the crew started alerting the outsiders in frenzy with torches and screaming in Tamil that their nets were laid there. It was of no use. Two massive trawlers that went past Wasana 1 in a split second had dragged its net and vanished in no time tearing the fishing gear beyond irreparable damage. The stunned boatmen couldn’t do much, but helplessly gaze at their adversaries, who showed no mercy.

Myliddy Fishery Harbour in Jaffna

Bright noon sun rays hitting the calm sea waters of the Myliddy harbour on the Kankesanthurai coast were giving a silvery reflection on a couple of dozen local trawler boats including Wasana 1 that had been docked for various purposes. Dinesh and his team that had stopped for a regular refueling two weeks ago were reflecting upon the worst experience they had to experience in recent times and explained how the invading Indian boat issue was affecting them.
“We had to spend about Rs.100,000 to repair whatever remains of the fishing gear that we could salvage from the mid sea encounter. Besides, our entire multi-day trawling session went wasted as we had to return home empty handed. We usually expect a good fish harvest of about Rs.5 million from a 30-day fishing trip,” Suranga explained.
“From this amount the expenses for a 30-day trip would cost us about Rs.1.8 million. The expenses for the supplies include 3, 000 litres of diesel for the boat, 2, 000 litres of fresh water, sufficient food items for a month including fresh vegetables, poultry items, sweets and snacks and even plenty of booze to soften our fatigue and stress. The rest of the Rs.3.2 million is then divided in half between the owner of the trawler and the crew. But none of this couldn’t be achieved in December,” he said.

Crew member Kasun said that the Indian boats were a nightmare in their lives. “They not only steal our rich-fish harvest, but also dangerously damage the marine environment. Their boats are huge and are about thrice the size of ours. When a couple of hundred such boats come none of us can fight or resist them. Even the Navy could not resist them sometimes. We have complained to the Navy on many occasions, but they would only say that they will take care of the situation. But nothing happens,” he said.
Myliddy Fisheries Harbour situated on the top most edge of the Northern shoreline is a very crowded and active place to be in the early morning. Hundreds of boats both multi-day trawlers as well as regular light weight fishing vessels like motorboats arrive in the harbour every morning from dawn with their day’s catch.

Diminishing fish harvest

The pier of the harbour also gets packed with the outside visitors who throng to buy the fresh catch of the day. The people who gather there include fish vendors from Jaffna Town, the middle-men who would buy and transport fish to surrounding areas, local fisher community that would do door to door marketing and residents of the area that visit the harbour to buy fish for their daily needs.
Ravindran Priya is a 37-year-old mother of three children from the local fisher community in Myliddy. She hails from a traditional fishing family in the north and has visited Myliddy harbour every morning for the past six years, since the military released it after occupying the land around it for the past 30 years. Priya’s main source of income is generated by buying particular types of fish from the deep sea trawlers and preparing them to be sold as dry fish.

Priya explained how her family and parents used to be engaged in the fisheries business peacefully about 25 years ago. This was before the fisher folk in Myliddy were displaced in 1990 due to the civil war and had to leave the area. About 15,000 fisher families settled around the Myliddy harbour were displaced and forced to scatter around the Jaffna District for many years and were deprived of their livelihood.
“But when we were granted our lands back in 2018 we found out that there had been another issue developing. That was the Indian bottom trawling issue. During the intervening period- when the fisher folks of Myliddy were displaced- some large local boat owners from elsewhere had started engaging in illegal bottom trawling in the abandoned fishing grounds of the displaced communities. This had even led to the poachers from across the Palk Strait to move towards the SL waters to engage in the same.
“Before all this happened we used to do business of over 100 kilos of fish per day, but now we can do only about 10 to 15 kilograms a day. The Indian trawling issue has become a big problem in our day to day lives now. Because they arrive in hundreds, the amount of fish caught by our local vessels have decreased significantly, thus this issue reflecting adversely on our income,” Priya said.