One day after the Fisheries Minister promised to cancel permits for migrant fishermen engaging in unsustainable fishing practices off the Mullaitivu seas, local fishermen who had engaged in the protest found their huts and equipment torched
Last Sunday, Minister of Fisheries Wijithamuni Soysa visited the fishing village of Nayaru in the Mullaitivu District, in a bid to end a continuous protest by fishermen in the area demanding an end to dynamite fishing and other unsustainable methods by fishermen holding permits from other parts of the island. The Minister vowed to cancel all such permits that authorised fishing methods that would adversely impact fish stocks and breeding, and the Mullaitivu fishing community called off their protest.
The next day, around 10.30PM their fishing huts, nets, boats and generators were torched.
Following complaints made to the Mullaitivu Police, 27 suspects were arrested in connection with the arson attacks. The suspects have been remanded by the Mullaitivu Magistrate.
Assistant Director, Investigations Unit of the Department of Fisheries Janaka Ratnayake told the Sunday Observer that he was leading a four-member investigation into the arson incidents in Mullaitivu.
The team was currently in Mullaitivu and even with the suspects in custody, investigations were continuing, Ratnayake said.
According to Northern Provincial Council Member for Mullaitivu, Thurairasa Ravikaran, police were initially reluctant to record the fishermen’s complaint. Provincial legislators like Ravikaran blame Government authorities in Pulmoddai for causing the tension by issuing permits to migrant fishermen, giving them unrestricted access.
For weeks, about 1,500 fishermen in Nayaru were demonstrating round the clock in front of the Mullaitivu Fisheries Department office over this unrestricted access and the use of unsustainable fishing methods using dynamite and strong lights to stun fish in the seas off the war affected Northern District.
The Mullaitivu fishing community accuse migrant fisherfolk from the south, particularly Negombo and Chilaw, of engaging in these unsustainable practices.
“Their methods of fishing destroy 100 % of the fish stocks – dynamite use kills all fish large and small and destroys coral reefs and other breeding grounds,” says Anthonypillai Mariadas, who is the past Chairman of the Federation of Mullaitivu District Fishermen’s Union (FMDFU). Dynamite fishing is particularly unsustainable because it kills larvae, tiny fish and juveniles before they grow to full size. The Mullaitivu fishermen allege that the migrant fishing community also uses the fishing nets called ‘surukku valai’ which include powerful lights that stun fish of all sizes and trap them in the net.
Ultimately, the Mullaitivu fishing community feels these unsustainable fishing methods will deprive them of livelihood when the fish stock is depleted.
According to Johnson Franklin, Treasurer of FMDFU, local fisher families were agitating demanding that the southern fishermen return to coastal areas earmarked for them in Nayaru, instead of infiltrating into traditional coastal and fishing areas of the local fishermen. Franklin told the Sunday Observer that that fishermen from Negombo, Chilaw,Wennappuwa and Kalpitiya were regularly infiltrating their traditional fishing grounds. One businessman from Piliyandala who owns a large fleet of fishing boats and who recently came again to the area after serving a jail term for prohibited methods of fishing is posing a big threat to the local fishermen, Franklin related.
Migrant fisher communities are granted permits to fish in waters far from home when it is off season in their own seas. In Mullaitivu, migrant fishermen have been allocated six acres to construct fishing huts and store equipment.
But local fishermen accuse these visitors of encroaching into their territory, by putting up illegal constructions and wading into their coastal lands.
Fisheries Minister Soysa visited Mullativu on Sunday , August 12, together with a team of senior ministry officials and assured the protesters that all steps necessary to prevent fishermen from other districts encroaching into their traditional fishing areas and taking recourse to detrimental methods of fishing would be taken and permits authorising them would be cancelled.
TNA Parliamentarians M.A.Sumanthiran, Mavai Senadhirajah, Charles Nirmalanathan and (Ms) Sri Skandaraja and ACMC parliamentarian and Deputy Minister Cader Masthan were also present.
According to correspondents in the area, the village remains tense following the continuous protests and last week’s arson attacks. Blurb
Migrant fisher communities are granted permits to fish in waters far from home when it is off season in their own seas.