Vadamaradchi fishermen fear serious damage to coral reefs

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 February 2005, 18:57 GMT]
Fishermen who setout out for fishing on 15 traditional "catamaran" fishing boats without outboard engines from the affected coastal villages from Thondamanaru to Point Pedro Munai in the Northen sea on Saturday, upon their return expressed fear that the coral reefs have been severely damaged by the tsunami devastation and the debris. They said this could affect the fishing in the region for a long time. Tsunami devastation has worsened fishermen's predicament from the already imposed restrictions on fishing in deep waters by the Sri Lankan Navy (SLN), said sources from the Federation of the Fishermen's Union.

Some of the fishing vessels damaged by the tsunami have been repaired by the fisher folks own efforts, civil sources said. However, there is no possibility of using these vessels at present as the natural buffers of lime stones in the fishing harbors have been disturbed by the tsunami waves, they further said.

The Federation of the fishermen’s unions has requested the Sri Lankan government and the International NGO’s to rebuild the lime stone buffers and deepen the jetties, sources added.

Fishing in this region has been restricted for the past twenty years and fishing landing points have been neglected.

Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and fishermen in Jaffna's Vadamaradchi have been at loggerheads since the signing of Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) in 2002 over digging and dredging mooring points along this coast.


Boats devastated by tsunami in Ponit-Pedro