ri Lanka’s State Minister of Fisheries, Piyal Nishantha de Silva, at a press briefing held at the Presidential Media Centre on Wednesday (13) announced plans to introduce the installation of cooling plants on all multi-day fishing trawlers operating in Sri Lanka. The initiative is being taken with the aim of reducing post harvest wastage which is between 40 to 60 percent.
He also said that with support from the Australian Government, a fishing vessel monitoring system has been implemented for multi-day fishing trawlers in our country and currently the system has been installed on 2350 of the 4200 registered multi-day fishing trawlers.
The state minister disclosed that discussions have taken place between the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Sri Lanka Navy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the situation involving the “Lorenzo Putha-4” vessel. The legal procedures are being conducted in accordance with the laws of Seychelles. President Ranil Wickremesinghe has instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Attorney General, to expedite the legal proceedings in Seychelles and facilitate the repatriation of the fishermen to Sri Lanka at the earliest opportunity.