• Interim report expected within six weeks.

The National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) clarified the decline in fish resources currently being experienced by fishermen in Sri Lanka is part of a global trend, saying it is too early to conclude that El Niño is the cause.

Following the Fisheries Ministry’s request for NARA to prepare a report on the reasons behind the decline, the agency is conducting research using three approaches to determine the causes.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (9), NARA Chairperson Prof Sanath Hettiarachchi said it would take longer to complete the final report requested by the Ministry, but that an interim report would be submitted to the Government within the next month and a half. “We are also bound to provide the information to other decision-making bodies like the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) if the information is requested.”

“Many directly assume that the reason for the decline in fish resources in the seas is El Niño, but actually, El Niño has not hit us yet. Hence it is too early to make such an assumption. The decline of fishing resources is a global tendency and so far what has been identified is that the nutrients in the seas have declined, leaving no food for fish to eat, and hence the fish resources decline,” he said.

Prof Hettiarachchi also said large-scale fishing could contribute to such a situation. However, he noted that fishing methods in Sri Lanka were relatively inefficient and that large-scale fishing of that nature did not take place in the country.

The research is continuing to determine the reasons for the decline. “We are doing the research using various approaches: the first is the social and cultural reasons, and then the behavioural patterns of the fishes and the factors related to that,” he said.

He added that, as a research institution, NARA would also make recommendations on the measures that should be taken once the causes of the decline were identified.