Merlin provides emergency healthcare to previously inaccessible area of the Democratic Republic of Congo
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RPT-S.Lanka fishing splutters back to life after tsunami
04 Feb 2005 05:28:26 GMT
Source: Reuters
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(Fixes spelling in paragraph 8) By Rahul Sharma BERUWALA, Sri Lanka, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A white board in Kudabandara Dissanayke's office at a fishing harbour on Sri Lanka's southwestern coast lists earnings for all months of last year except December. That's when the tsunami swallowed his computer and records after tossing dozens of fishing boats deep inland. "I don't know how much we earned in December. Everything went. We have to start from scratch," said the manager of the Beruwala fishing harbour, as he ordered new calculators for his staff and wondered when new water pumps would arrive. Outside his office in the harbour complex fishing boats brought in the day's catch, some returning after a month at sea. On a patch of wetland nearby, fishermen repaired boats. "That is the tsunami yard," Dissnanayke said. "We put in about 40 badly damaged boats there after the tsunami. They are being repaired and taken away." Business at Beruwala fishing harbour is nearly back to normal after weeks of disruption following the tsunami. About 30 tonnes of fish is reaching there a day, the same amount that arrived before the tsunami. Anxiety that fish had dined on human corpses briefly took seafood off the menu in Sri Lanka, where the waves killed about 40,000 people. But the fears have faded on the Indian Ocean island and business is once again brisk at the Fresh Fish shop in Colombo. "Prices dropped by 50 percent after the tsunami but customers have now started eating fish again," said manager Dharmasiri Gunasekera. SHORT OF BOATS He said prices were back to pre-tsunami levels but, in some cases, the shortage of fishing boats had hit supplies -- pushing prices higher. In northern Jaffa, a 112 kg (247 lb) shark caught by fishermen last week sold for 78,000 rupees ($780), much higher than pre-tsunami days. Residents said a kilo of seer fish that cost 120 rupees before the waves hit now sold for 300 rupees. The tsunami ravaged Sri Lanka's fishing industry, destroying or damaging 65 percent of the country's fleet, according to an assessment by aid donors. Large fishing trawlers can still be seen sitting atop rocks and on road sides. "I lost three boats and 1 million rupees worth of fishing nets and other tools," said Jagath Jayasinghe, a fishermen near Kalutara, as he hobbled on the beach with a bandaged knee he injured when he was thrown inland by the waves. The National Development Bank, which has set up a relief fund for fishermen, said 30 percent of some 30,000 fishing boats registered with government agencies were destroyed. The situation in the country's north and east was worse, it said, with 70 percent of the fleet destoryed. "The hardest hit were the fishermen who fished inshore in lagoons and river estuaries and on the fringes of the continental shelf around 15 miles off shore," said Hasantha Perera, project manager with NDB. BILLIONS OF RUPEES He said it would cost more than 3 billion rupees to repair and replace the fishing fleet. Sri Lanka produces about 300,000 tonnes of fish annually, contributing 2 to 3 percent of the island's gross domestic product. The sector earns about $100 million a year exporting shrimp, lobster, tuna and shark fins, mainly to Japan, the European Union and the United States. Most of Sri Lanka's fishermen lived on its golden beaches and many died when the tsunami struck. Those who survived lost their boats, fishing nets and other tools of the trade. Thousands of them are now housed in temporary shelters away from the northern, eastern and southern coasts of the country, living on aid and with no means to earn a living. Environmentalists say Sri Lanka needs more fishing harbours. "The fishermen need to move inland from the beaches where they lived and fishing harbours would give them a place to park their boats and keep their tools," said Channa Bambaradeniya, a programme coordinator with The World Conservation Union. (Additional reporting by Joe Ariyaratnam in JAFFNA)
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