Fisheries authorities in Sri Lanka and India have agreed to solve the issues of fishermen in the Palk Bay region without taking the fishermen through court processes. Sri Lanka is releasing Indian fishermen who have been in Sri Lankan custody for illegal cross-border fishing, while India is releasing Sri Lankan fishermen in Sri Lankan custody for similar doing after a top level decision taken by Sri Lanka and India to release the fishermen, Fisheries Ministry Maritime Surveillance Unit yesterday told the Daily News.
Fisheries Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratna said they have decided to solve matters amicably by way of friendly discussions with the Indian authorities.
There are thousands of trawlers from Tamil Nadu that enter Sri Lankan waters on a daily basis. This has has led to a situation of dwindling fish in Lankan waters.
Sri Lanka recentltly released a batch of Indian fishermen who were in Sri Lankan custody for violating International Maritime Boundary Line law and illegally fishing in Lankan waters in a friendly gesture to India.
Meanwhile, India released 20 Sri Lankan fishermen four days ago. They had been arrested for fishing in the Indian waters, said Fisheries Ministry officials.
They said, moves are under way to install a Vessel Monitoring System(VMS) to monitor Sri Lankan vessels and to prevent them from straying into the territorial waters of other countries by way of satellite based signals.
Asked if the system could monitor foreign vessels from entering into Sri Lankan seas, he said, it will not be possible. However, the Sri Lanka Navy and local Coast Guard patrol the sea to prevent such occurrences. Asked about the situation of trawling by Indian vessels in Sri Lankan waters, Navy spokesman commodore Kosala Warnakulasuriya said , that situation has been brought under control to a greater degree.
Asked if they arrest poaching Indian vessels, he said , Sri Lankan Navy would arrest any vessel that enters the Sri Lankan waters illegally. However, we used to issue warnings to Indian vessels before they cross over into our waters. We have not arrested anyone recently, he added.
We have brought several local fishermen and their boats to Sri Lankan shores after they were handed over to us by the Indian Coast Guard. We too have handed over Indian fishermen, who were arrested by us on charges of illegal entry into Lankan waters upon their release by the government, he explained.
2012 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.