Foil bid to legitimise illegal fishing

Thursday 3rd February, 2022

Laws prevent a country’s descent into chaos, if not anarchy. The same is true of the world at large, and hence the need for international laws to be abided by. When norms and rules upon which the international order is based are disregarded or violated, conflicts occur. Russia is currently under international pressure to follow the rule book, respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and refrain from violating the latter’s territory. But there are no such international concerns about the rights of other states that are not allies of the western powers.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin has sought New Delhi’s intervention to secure the release of a group of South Indian fishermen recently arrested for poaching in Sri Lankan waters. His action is tantamount to an attempt to legitimise illegal fishing at Sri Lanka’s expense. The Centre, under pressure from Tamil Nadu, is likely to take up the issue with Colombo.

The problem of illegal fishing that plagues Sri Lanka persists owing to diplomatic interventions that put paid to the implementation of the international maritime laws. How could there be a diplomatic solution to a legal problem? New Delhi’s interventions on behalf of Tamil Nadu poachers have emboldened the latter to carry out their illegal operations in Sri Lankan waters while playing the victim.

Successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to safeguard the interests of the northern fishers affected by illegal fishing, and the latter have taken the law into their hands. They recently resorted to hostile action against a group of Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters. The situation is bound to take a turn for the worse unless the Sri Lankan fishermen’s grievances are redressed.

Colombo’s leniency has apparently led the Tamil Nadu fishers to think they have a legitimate right to enter Sri Lankan waters for fishing. They and their political leaders have even opposed a project Sri Lanka has launched to create new fish breeding grounds by sinking old buses in its territorial waters; the submerged contraptions will damage their boats and gear, the Tamil Nadu fishermen have complained. Thus, they have admitted, albeit unwittingly, that they fish in Sri Lankan waters! True, artificial barriers damage their nets used for bottom trawling, which is illegal, as Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda has pointed out. As we have argued in a previous comment, many more old vehicles must be sunk in the sea to prevent bottom-trawling.

Illegal fishing is a far more complex issue than it looks, and the politics of it is not usually factored in when efforts are made to resolve it. Tamil Nadu politicians encourage poaching by way of an assault on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. They agitate fiercely when vessels involved in illegal fishing are taken into custody because they themselves own most of them. In December 2013, the then Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne disclosed that certain Tamil Nadu politicians were behind the illegal fishing operations in Sri Lanka’s waters. He said they owned boats, which they made available to Indian fishers, who poached in Sri Lankan waters. These political elements are trifling with Sri Lanka’s sovereignty, and trying to pit the Central government of India against this country. New Delhi has chosen to tread on eggshells lest it should antagonise the Tamil Nadu politicians, who demand that their fishers be given unbridled freedom to carry out illegal fishing at the expense of this country.

If the issue of illegal fishing is to be solved, India and Sri Lanka must allow each other to deal with it legally. It has been suggested that the vessels used for illegal fishing be confiscated and their crews released. This, we believe, is likely to be a solution.