Development of Fisheries in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Sri Lanka
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Indian Ocean Programme IOP/TEcri./?P .' 17 DEVELOPMENT OP FISHKRDJJS IN rl'HE JliXCLUSIVEl 11;coNOMIC ZONE OF SRI LANKA FDOD AND AGHICULTUffill r)RGf\fflZA'I'ION Oii' 'I'!iE UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPME1NT PROGRAMME Horne, 19'/D ;ij, def~igne;iions omp1o;ted and the presemtation of in thirJ publioation do not imply the GfJion of nny whatsoever on the part tho J.i'ood ox1d Ag1'icnltu:n.) 0J.'gc>niza:tion of the Nations eoncEn·ning the statmJ of any v to:i'Pitm·y, cj:ty or area or of i"ts 'l;ic'1G; n<" conowrning '&he delimitation of frorrtiGl'D (H' boumlar:ieso Campleman? Go (1978) Teche Repe IndigE. _Ocean P:r·o~l:!2::'f';;11¥!!~ 7 ( 10) g 13 Po Development of fislrnrfas in the exclusive economic zone of Sri Lanka Comm®rcial fishing. Economic analysiso Feasibility. Financing. Fish<n'y developmento Fishery l'EHmurcer3o Potimtii'tl yielde ISW i Sri Lanke,. The; copyright in i;h:iD lJook hi veE.ri;ed in the Food and Ai;-riculture Organization of the United Nationso ~('he 1)ook may not l)e reproduced, in whole or in part, by a:ny mothod or procesr:;~ without written permission from the copyright holder" Applicv;ti.ons for f'ltWh permission, with &, ste,tement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction desh0 ed, chould 1Je addressed to the Director, Publications D:ivirJion~ Food ax1d Agriculture 01•ganiza.tion of the United Nations, Via delle 'rel'.'mt~ di Caracalla1 00'100 Home v Italy. (~) FAO 1978 ~ iii DEVEWPMEN'l' OF FISHERIES IN EXCLUSIVE ECONOM+o ZONE OF SRI LANKA b;y INTRODUCTION In Novembe1' 1977, the Gover.m1vr-1t ~l~ei J,ankn r(~queFJted assistance from FAO in the formulation of policies for the iiest utilization of the fishery resources within the Exclusive Economic Zone and to formulate a ertrategy for negotiations with neighbouring countries and private foreign interests. Accordingly, the Indian Ocean Fishery Stu'vey and Development Programme (IOP) assigned a consultant, Mr. Gordon Campleman, to study the situation and report to the Government of Sri Lanka0 He arrived in Sri Lanka on 24 November 1977 and departed on 21 December. In this hme 1 he had a nUJnber of discussions with members of the administration 1 prhrat<3 investors, locally based international staff of FAQ and of the Asian Developmmrt Bank. He was fortunate in being able to attend the "Symposium on the Th:rvf1loprneni; of OfffJhore and Deep-Sea Fishing in Sri Lanka", held in Colombo 29 and 30 Novembe1'. The consultant 1 a thanks are pa.rticula:i'ly due to Mr. Ve Pierterz, Secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries, for Mr:; kind and lrnlpful advice, and to Mre LeO e Engvall, FAO /UNDP SmaJ.1-Scale I~inh<n'itrn Pro jtJc't, IOP, for his help and assistance. TABLE SRI LANKA - FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT AND THE EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE Present Situation 1 The Eli:clusive Economic Zone 1 Demersal Resources 1 Pelagic Resources 1 Investment Climate 3 Fisheries Policy 3 GOVERNMENT POLICY TOWARDS FOREIGN-OWNED FISHING VENTURES 5 DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES 7 Economic Feasibility ••••••••••• o ••••••••• 7 Tuna Long-Lining " • • • • " • • • • o • • • • • • • " o • 8 The Combination Gillnet/Pole-a.nd-Line Live-Bait Fishery • • e • • • • • • ., • 8 A Fisheries Development Strategy ••••••••••• o ••••••••• 9 Procedure • • • • o • • • o • 0 • • o • • • • • • • 11 SUMMARY - CONCLUSIONS 12 1 SRI LANKA = nsHERIES DEVELOPMEN'l1 AND 'THE: mxcLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE 'lhe purpose of this present paper is to disomrn th•3 situe;tion presently arising from the extension of Sri Lanka's EEZ to 200 m:Ues and ·the establishment of the India - Sri Lanka Mari time Boundary and to propose an effefftive strateg.y for its exploi"6ation0 'l'he existing fisheries of Sri Lanka are almost entirely coairta,1 1 small boa'G operations using floating gillnets end handlines 1 "V1Uh some trawling in th.e nor·th. Considerable pro~ gress has been me,de since the nineteen sixties in the mechanization of the fleet 1 culminating in the current introduction o:f 38~,foot drift net boats under e11_ Asian Development Bank pro ject. Total catches in 1976 amounted to '13'. 700 -to1w OY' 89% of total fish comsumption at a~ ,9_!!£Ut consumption ( 19'(4) 0f e::L1., 1 .Lb~J" :;i1pu.( :,,: ,, [' r ... ~J; b.Jnow1t to 2 700 tons, mainly shrimp and lobster and imports to ·1'.) 700 ton20 Jmporbmt eonstx'aints on development have been a chronic shortage of foreign exchange and consequent import restrictions, shortages of fishing gear 1 engines and spares, a lack of substantial local ca,pital for investment 1 a. lack of suitable deep~water harbours and c:x.tomfrve lHto1"eJ drift. It is believed that oppor-tunity· still exints for th<~ expunsi.m1 oi' the inchore fisheries through vessel and gear improvements. 'l'he establishment of the ex:pnnded EEZ 9 togt1ther with the India - Sri Lanka Mari time Boundax•y 7 has on the one hand drantically ourt.ailed ·t.raditional offshore trawling grounds, and on the other hand 1 made availa1Jle excl1rnive rights to Sri Lanka of some 90 OOO square miles <Jf ocean. The principal effect of the recent chang0s has been the loss of Sri Lankan access to the Wadge Bank after 1979 1 and one~third of the Pedro .Bank plus areas to the north now in Indian waters. These areas were the only lmmm grvund feasible for larger trawlers. There is not enough scientific evidence available to permit; any accurate assessm1mt of the demer sal potential. With a relatively naX'J.'0\1 contirnnd:aJ. shelf 1 it cannot be large. Whilst there are probably some areas capable of sustaining t-i:,awling operations for lobster, shrimp and some few comme1•cially important species of fish 1 these, in general, remain to be discovered outside the inshore area. There are some known possibilities for the development of hand and long•·line fisheries. In general, the consGnsus of opinion is that 1 despite some oppor tunities for the expansion of m'·tisanal n.nd 8'!TI8,1l~boai; trawling, the demersal fisheries do not present a substantial potential for expar1sion 1 other than small-scale trawling and long.. lining. There will be some problems of redeployment of the trawling fleet following upon the loss ·to Sri Lanka of the Wadge Bank and part of the Pedro Bank. Sri Lanka has taken steps to reduce its commitment to purchase some large ·trawlers from Norway, but it is most probable tha·t existing trawling capacity is at present o,<lcquatu •rhere is a possibility of substi~ tut.ing Sri Lankan vessels for ·~he large numbe>.' of In<l:i.3n v0s13els trawling in the Bay of Mannar areas. A programme to this end ild being pr,:ip3,·r\~d ctnd t·dll b& financed by a loan from the Abu Dhabi Fundo J:~la,gic ~Re,!!21urces 2/ 'Phe principal resotu'cea of the EEZ are pelagic species, which sustain the present inshore fishery and provide over 70 OOO tons of fish per year. Outside the existing fished area, the main resources are yellowfin and bigeye tuna, 1 skipjack and sharks. The following table gives the most recent estimates of potential annual yields in the offshore area of the EEZ. Y The infoPma,tion used in this section is talrnn from the papers by Dr. Mendis and Dr. Sivasubramanian1 (Working Papers 3 and 4) of the Sy-mposium on the Development of Offshore and Deep Sea Fishing, Colombo, November 1977. 0 ~~--~~--· • (25.,.200 mHes Zone} tons/annum Spanii:lh M1:wl<erel 1 OOO Indian Ma,ckerel 1 Flying Fish, 3 OOO Squid, etc. Frigate ~ackerel Mackerel Tuna OOO Skip jack 15 OOO Young.Yellowfin 1 OOO Old Yellowf1n 1 Bigeye 2 OOO Sharks 5 OOO Spear Fish and Marlins 1 OOO Total 29 OOO (from Sivasubramanian 1 B Working Pa,per No. 4) Due to the monsoon t;ype of climate and associated oceanographic conditions, this mixed pelagic population exhibits certain unique characteristics., Skipjack and young yellowfin a.re found in the range of up to 60 miles offshore (including inshore water) at almost all times of the year. They may be~ and are, caught with drift nets below the surface between June and September. At othe1' times of the year, they swim on the surface, and could be caught by a live bait pole-and-line fishery, or by floating lon(Sl-lines. Outside this range 1 the tunas are older and larger, living at greater depths and only accessible to a deep long--line fishery. It is said that both the near-water and offshore tunas do not school sufficiently to permit modern deep purse-seining. Sharks, marlin and spear fishes have a wide distribu tion in the offshore zone. Experiments have shown that resources for live bait and lon(Sl-line bait are readily available on both east and west coasts of Sri Lanka within 15 fathomse There is a tradi tional pole-and-line fishery in the coastal waters which is fairly successful at certain season Se The experimental live-bait pole-and-line fishing conducted by three Japanese vessels in 1973-74 cannot be considered a commercial success, partly due to problems with bait fishing, which are now resolved and partly due to the seasonal disappearance of the skip jack from the surfacee There is no possibility of a year round live-bait pole-and-line fishery for skipjacko However, in season, August/September on the east coast, and October to February on the southwest coast, good results of more than one ton per day of yellowfin and skipjack can be realizede This very cursory survey of the kno~m resources of the EEZ suggests that expansion of the fisheries of Sri Lanka will necessarily have to take the form of: a) A combination drift net/pole-and-line fishery for skipjack and small yellowfin tuna in the range between 25 imd 60 miles offshoree b) A high seas lon(Sl-line fishery for large tuna outside 25 miles and,