More inland fisheries for greater output

Inland fisheries and aquaculture are the fastest growing sectors in the world food industry. Aquaculture itself would produce additional 85 million metric tonnes of fish and other species by 2030.

Consumption of fish and fisheries products continue to grow; consequently there is significant potential in the growth in imported farm-raised sea food coupled to meet the decline in global fish stocks worldwide.

The development of inland fisheries and aquaculture in Sri Lanka had been affected to a greater extent due to the cessation of Government patronage to inland fisheries in 1990.

Civil unrest over the last 30 years also prohibited the access to north, and thereby restricted development of inland fisheries and aquaculture in the area, where about 50,000 hectares of inland aquatic resources are located. The vast perennial and seasonal reservoirs and coastal lagoons in the north and east coasts provide excellent natural environmental conditions for capture and culture-based fisheries, thus inland fish production could increase substantially employing best management practice with efficient stakeholder participation.

The country is not blessed with natural lakes and the existing thousands of water bodies either seasonal or perennial are solely manmade. This has brought recognition to the island as a nation with the highest land to water ratio on earth. Storage of rain water in tanks and reservoirs has resulted in every one sq km of land having around 4.0 hectares of water, which is extremely a high value of land to inland water ratio on a global scale. Water resource development and management in Sri Lanka since ancient times to date have benefited people in many ways, fulfilling their basic requirement such as irrigation, hydro power generation and drinking water supply.

Besides these, reservoirs contribute as a potential biological resource. Inland fishery in Sri Lanka was a rural domestic activity limited only to catching fish by traditional methods. At present the country produces about 45,500 metric tonnes of inland fish per year amounting to 13.5 per cent of the national fish production through capture and culture-based fishery. In addition to harvesting fishery, 22,000 metric tonnes of thrash fish can be exploited from inland water bodies.

Further, coastal lagoons and seasonal tanks can be utilised for extensive aquaculture culture. Since there is a vast potential to raise a massive biomass through stock enhancement and extensive aquaculture it is extremely important to formulate a fast-tracked programme for the development of inland fisheries and aquaculture in the country.   It is proposed to increase the inland fish production to 100,000 metric tonnes by 2014. National Aquaculture Development Authority of Sri Lanka (NAQDA) hopes to achieve this target by optimising the utilisation of major and medium perennial reservoir for fish production where the majority of reservoirs in the north and east which were marginally utilised to raise fish production due to the war situation will now be targeted for development.

In the case of seasonal reservoirs, a proposal has been made to use an additional 7,000 hectares for culture-based fisheries. Other means of increasing inland fisheries would also be to increase minor perennial reservoirs, rehabilitate and use abandoned shrimp ponds as well start to use estate ponds and other pond cultures. NAQDA will also utilise new reservoirs for inland fish production and brackish water shrimp culture.

Other areas which NAQDA is looking at enhancing and where pilot projects have already started are with regard to non-traditional aquaculture such as sea bass, sea cucumber, bivalves and seaweed culture.

Some of these aquaculture products are popular in the South Asian region and are also alternatives to traditional fish products. It was noted that the estimated cost for this project is Rs. 840 million for five years, but the return in terms of fish production is Rs. 55,500 million for the same period.