Source: Daily News


While member countries of Bay of Bengal Program (BOBP) are yet to establish regional cooperation for a potential Action Plan to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregular (IUU) fishing, the countries of the West, that are on the persistently engaging in IUU tuna fishing on the high seas off Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives, are not only threatening depletion of fish resources, but also lobbying against fishermen in the region saying that they were in the business of IUU fishing.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Dr Rajitha Senaratna addressing the sixth meeting of the Governing Council of the Bay of Bengal Project held in Colombo yesterday asked the member countries of the BOBP Inter Governmental Organization, to focus on stimulating its regional cooperation to prevent illegal fishing carried out by fishing vessels that poach into the seas of the region from Western countries.

The BOBP Governing Council met in Sri Lanka for the second time this year.

The members of the BOBP Council Joint Secretary Fisheries and Chairman Tarun Shridhar and Director Dr. Yugraj Yadawa, Maldivian Fisheries and Agriculture State Minister Hussain Rasheed Hassan, and Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry Secretary Dr. Damitha De Soyza were present.

Minster Senaratna emphasized that BOBP member countries should meet more often to find an effective solution to prevent a possible depletion of tuna and other fish in the seas of the region, which is the result of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing by foreign fishing trawlers.

This will put unsustainable pressure on fish stocks, he pointed out. On the contrary, Western countries that engage in IUU fishing have lobbied against small scale fishermen at various Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, such as the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, stating that our fishermen are engaged in IUU fishing in their territorial waters, when the reverse is the actual situation.

The Minister proposed to the Governing Council to have a meeting prior to participating in the next meeting of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, so that they can convince the membership on the actual situation as a unit.

“The member countries of BOBP, India, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka share common fish stocks,” he said.