Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
A broadly similar pattern pertained in pre-industrial fisheries along the northwest
coast of Sri Lanka. At the time, the Jaffna peninsula was already well populated,
offering a local market as well as transport opportunities to Colombo. The same was
true for Mannar Island, which constituted a throughway for Indian labourers working
in the plantation sector of central Sri Lanka. The long stretch of coastline between
these two points, however, was covered with jungles and therefore sparsely inhabited.
Beachseining took place in suitable locations and the plots, or
paadu
, were assigned by
government.
12
As in India, however, the colonial government seems to have displayed
little interest in marine fishing - with the exception of the pearl fishery - leaving the
majority of practices to fishers themselves to regulate.
Following Independence, the governments of India and Sri Lanka both launched
extensive modernisation programs for the marine fisheries (Amarasinghe 2005;
Bavinck and Johnson 2008). The main ingredients hereof in Sri Lanka were new tech-
nologies for fishing - outboard engines, nylon nets, and inboard engine boats (3.5 ton
boats/multi-day craft) for driftnet fishing and longlining - as well as preservation (cool-
ing/freezing). The same technological mixes found their way to Indian fishers along the
Palk Bay, with one crucial difference: whereas the Indian government explicitly sought
to promote trawling for fish in coastal waters, the Sri Lankan government promoted
passive fishing methods, such as gillnetting. This different emphasis has had major
implications for fisheries conflict in the Palk Bay.
The modernisation drive was remarkably successful: in both countries the level of
catches rose leaps and bounds. The integration of seafood producing regions, such as
the Palk Bay, into national and international markets also resulted in higher beach-level
prices, which generally increased the attractiveness of fishing. Immigration therefore
occurred along both coastlines, increasing population pressure (Bavinck 2011c).
The civil war, which commenced in Sri Lanka in 1983 and terminated only a
quarter century later in 2009, severely impacted the fisheries in northern Sri Lanka.
Not only was the shoreline depopulated, but security regulations often brought fishing
to a standstill. It was only with the cessation of the war and the lifting of some control
measures that regular fishing activity commenced once more. However, Sri Lankan
small-scale fishers are now troubled by Indian trawlers that ply the inshore waters of
northern Sri Lanka in search of shrimp and sea cucumbers (Sathyapalan et al. 2007;
Scholtens et al. 2012). The incursions by Indian trawlers have resulted in an ongoing
series of conflicts at sea in which Indian boats have been captured and crewmembers
allegedly killed. On the other hand, Sri Lankan fishers have suffered heavy losses to
equipment and livelihoods.
The 'fishing war' that is currently taking place is a complex phenomenon. It is clear,
however, that it would not have achieved this intensity were it not for the integration
of fisheries into the global market, and the economic value seafood products have
come to represent. New technologies - such as trawling - have brought about new
risks for gear interferences, such as trawlers cutting the nets of small-scale fishers. The
perceived decline of marine resources as a consequence of fishing has given the conflict
a particularly bitter flavor.
12
Other than in southern Sri Lanka, where beachseining was organized at a community level
(Alexander 1982), the beachseine fisheries of the north were generally owned by single families
who employed wage labour (Bavinck 1984; Stirrat 1988)
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