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'Safeguard sea resources in Tamil homeland'

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 August 2003, 13:14 GMT]
A seminar on "Tamileelam sea resources and the challenges confronted by fishermen" was held Friday morning at the Veerasingham Hall in Jaffna under the auspices of the International Tamileelam Students Federation. In his keynote address at the seminar, Dr.A.Soosaianandan, Senior Lecturer at Jaffna University, warned of the dangers of sea resources in the Tamil homeland being "exploited by external elements."

"Several vested interests are now engaged in exploiting the sea resources in a planned way," he charged.

Dr.Soosaiyananthan expressed dismay that both the Sri Lankan and the Indian governments have not taken any concrete steps against the Indian fishermen who poach in the northern territorial waters.

"The Sri Lanka Navy is helping the poachers by remaining idle when Indian trawlers enter the northern territorial waters and poach our sea resources," he said, adding that at the same time, "Sinhalese fishermen are engaged in exploiting eastern sea resources of the Tamil homeland."

Expressing his concern with regards to the continued usage of dynamites that damage the sea resources in Trincomalee and other parts of the eastern province, Dr.Soosaiyananthan said, "We should be vigilant in safeguarding our sea resources along the coasts of the northeast province."

"We should safeguard our sea resource to build the economy of the our area in future," stressed Dr.Soosaiyananthan.

Many undergrads, members of public and educationists participated at the seminar.

Meanwhile, fishermen coming from other districts in their boats and trawlers are engaged in aggressively poaching in the Pooneryn-Pallikuda seas and this is affecting the livelihood of local fishermen, representatives of the local fishermen said in a public complaint.

The Fishermen’s Cooperative Society in Pallikuda has asked that the concerned parties should take action to stop this poaching and safeguard the sea resources for the local fishermen.

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