• Existing Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act to be repealed
• Degree of punishment and fines to be increased
• 352 suspects engaged in IUU apprehended from Jan. to March

A new and improved bill that heavily penalises Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is to be implemented by the end of this year, followed by the repeal of the existing Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act No.2 of 1996, The Sunday Morning learns.

Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Director General Susantha Kahawatta told The Sunday Morning that the existing act comprised over 100 gazetted regulations that applied both locally and internationally.

“Some things have changed, locally as well as internationally. Therefore, we have considered these changes, repealed this act, and have made a new act. Actually, by now, we have finished preparing it, submitted it to the Cabinet, and sent it to the Legal Draftsman for clearance. Once clearance from the Legal Draftsman is received, we will submit it to the Cabinet again, send it to Parliament, and we hope to get it done before the end of this year,” he said. 

He explained that one of the changes in the amended act was the increase of degree of punishment and the amount of fine to be paid if someone was caught engaging in IUU. Additionally, several new laws that cover areas absent from the existing act have been added to the new bill. 

According to Kahawatta, over 100 suspects have been apprehended for bottom trawling in 2025 and 2026. Sri Lanka has battled fleets of Indian poachers who cross the international maritime boundary every week in large numbers and trawl Sri Lankan waters. 

The latest interception of IUU off Talaimannar’s Urumalai Point on Wednesday (12) involved nine fishermen caught using banned bottom-trawling equipment, a practice local northern Sri Lankan fishing communities and marine conservationists warn is decimating fragile seabed ecosystems and depleting shared marine resources. 

Kahawatta stated that incredible damage was done environmentally by bottom trawling, with marine ecosystems being disturbed by unregulated fishing. “When nets are dragged along in that manner, the seabed is completely destroyed, and if there are corals, those get destroyed too. Moreover, it’s not selective; sometimes small fish species and other marine species get caught in these nets. Therefore, we cannot consider this as a sustainable fishery practice anywhere,” he explained.

He pointed out that the local fishermen’s harvest and the country’s resources were directly impacted by bottom trawling. The destruction of protected species and the seabed also affects the resources in the long term, according to Kahawatta.

“We face many negatives both directly and indirectly. We have to calculate how much catch a boat brings per day and per month to calculate that loss. Apart from that, there are also costs for the Navy to arrest suspects,” he said. 

According to the Sri Lanka Navy’s IUU Fishing Report 2026, 352 suspects engaged in IUU have been apprehended from January to March, with 90 fishing vessels seized.