Jaffna fishing production increases amid poaching, security restriction

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 July 2004, 19:13 GMT]
Jaffna district last year recorded a fish production of about 21,206 metric tones amid poaching and restrictions imposed by the Sri Lanka security forces on fishing by local population. Currently about 14,515 fishermen from 14,780 families are engaged in fishing in the peninsula, fisheries sources said.

Fish production in Jaffna district in 1983 was about 48,677 metric tons. However, the production went down to 2,671 metric tones from 1991 to 2001, fisheries sources said.

Since the signing of the ceasefire agreement by the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2002, fish production has slowly risen and now stands at about 21,206 tons which is only half of the production recorded twenty years ago in Jaffna district before the war broke out, fisheries sources said.