SLA agrees to relax restrictions on fishing in northern seas

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 April 2004, 16:03 GMT]
The Sri Lanka Army has allowed fishermen of the Vadamarachchi division in the Jaffna district to use fishing boats with 40 horse power (hp) outboard engines for fishing in the northern seas. A decision to this effect was made at a conference held Saturday at the Point Pedro Sri Lanka army camp attended by officials of the SLA and fisheries societies, fisheries sources said.

Till last week the SLA allowed fishermen to use boats with only 15 hp outboard engines for fishing in the northern sea, sources said.

The SLA has agreed to allow newly bought boats and catamarans to be brought by sea instead of transporting them through the road. However, the SLA officials told the fisheries representatives that the ban on boats and catamarans from the LTTE held Vadamarachchi east area to be brought by sea would continue. Vadamaradchchi east fishermen should bring their boats and catamarans by road to Vadamarachchi shore, fisheries sources said.

Meanwhile, officials of the Sri Lanka Navy's Jaffna region have agreed to meet the representatives of the Vadamarachchi fisheries societies regarding the incident in which a fisherman was killed when a SLN gunboat rammed a fishing boat recently. In that incident, two more fishermen in the boat sustained serious injuries, fisheries sources said.

" We will be bringing to the notice of the SLN officials at the proposed discussion the harassment by SLN personnel in sea and also the poaching menace by Indian fishermen," said a representative of the Vadamarachchi fisheries society.