• The Indo-Sri Lankan dispute over fishing rights in the Palk Strait has been an emotive issue of long-standing.
• Palk Strait: the water body separating Tamil Nadu from the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka.
• It has evoked loud complaints from Tamil Nadu and often led to a diplomatic furor between India and Sri Lanka.

India-Sri Lanka maritime boundary

• The Indo-Sri Lankan maritime boundary agreements were signed in 1974 and 1976.
• It allowed fishermen of both nations to enjoy in each other’s waters such rights as they have traditionally enjoyed therein.

Issues

• Since maritime boundaries lack physical demarcation, the lull in fishing activity, during the civil war in Sri Lanka, encouraged Indian fishermen to encroach into Sri Lankan waters.
• After the end of the civil war in 2009, the Sri Lankan fishing community sought to reclaim their rights, bringing them into conflict with Indian fishers.
• Intervention by the Sri Lankan Navy has often resulted in arrests, and even fatal shootings of Indian fishermen.
• Due to dwindling fish stocks, rising fuel costs, and growing tensions, fishing communities of both countries are in acute distress but remain confined to the Palk Strait for lack of finances.

Fishing fleet and the sea power of the country

• The fishing fleet is an important component of the sea power of the state.
• The role of this fleet has grown sharply, and its most important task consists in ensuring a solution to the acute food problem facing mankind.
• In the world wars, fishing vessels were widely used as part of the navy for combat tasks such as port defense and minesweeping.

How China grew its fishing industry?

• The dwindling availability of farmland forced China to become a net importer of food grain.
• Thus, to reduce import, it has mobilized the fishing industry to meet the rising demand for protein in the Chinese diet.
• China is owning the world’s largest deep-water fishing (DWF) fleet.
• In 2016, while China consumed 38 % of the global fish production, its DWF fleet brought home only 20 % of the world’s catch.
• To bridge this gap, China had begun distant deepwater fishing, as far back as 1985, and, struck contracts to fish in the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of other many countries in Asia and Africa.
• China also uses a part of its fishing fleet as a “maritime militia”, which assists the navy and coast guard in their tasks.

India and its fishing industry

• In India too, fish, being an affordable and rich source of animal protein, is one of the healthiest options to mitigate hunger and malnutrition.
• India’s fisheries are being transformed into a commercial enterprise.
• It has shown steady growth and has become a major contributor to foreign exchange.
• India ranks amongst the world’s leading seafood exporting nations.
• Fisheries provide a livelihood to about 15 million fishers and fish farmers at the primary level, and generates almost twice the number of jobs, along the value chain — in transportation, cold storage, and marketing.

Problems associated with Indian Fishing Industry

• India’s marine fishery has been dominated by the poor, small-scale fishers who can afford only small sailboats or canoes to fish for subsistence.
• India’s fishers deliver only 2 % of marine fish to the market, while 98 % is caught by mechanized and motorized craft.
• Indian fishermen do not venture into rich fishing grounds, most of the fishing is undertaken in coastal waters.
• Even in restricted fishing grounds, they have to compete with those of neighbors, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
• Fishing vessels often drift, inadvertently or otherwise, into foreign waters leading to apprehension by navies/coast guards and prolonged imprisonment of the crew.
• Also, the rich resources in India’s EEZ remain underexploited, and much of the catch from our fishing grounds is taken away by the better-equipped fishing fleets of other Indo-Pacific countries.
• Some of these countries are indulging in illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing.

What needs to be done?

Improving Fishing Vessels

• Mechanisation and modernization of fishing vessels by providing communication links and electronic fish-detection devices, with artisanal fishers being funded for this.

Deep Water Fleets

• Developing deep-water fishing fleets, with bigger, sea-going trawlers equipped with refrigeration facilities.

Mother ship concept

• DWF fleet will have to be built around the “mother ship” concept, wherein a large vessel would accompany the fleet to provide fuel, medical and on-board preservation/processing facilities.

Modern Fishing Harbours

• Development of modern fishing harbors with adequate berthing and post-harvest facilities, including cold storage, preservation, and packaging of fish.

Government’s effort:

Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana

• The government announced this scheme in September 2020.
• It is a flagship scheme for sustainable development of India’s fisheries sector with an estimated investment of Rs 20,000 crores over the next five years.

Using schemes like PMMSY to form an “Indo-Sri Lankan Fishing Corporation”, with a deepwater fishing fleet and dedicated fishing harbors, could not only provide a huge boost to the fishing industries but also send out a positive message of SAGAR: “Security and Growth for All in the Region”.