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June 07, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka will conduct a comprehensive marine fisheries stock assessment in 2013 for the first time in nearly four decades with Thai assistance, an official said.
Sri Lanka's National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) said technical assistance and funding support is coming from Thailand.

"We need to know the current status of the marine fisheries around the island in order to develop the fishery sector further," NARA chairman S G Samarasundara said.

Sri Lanka has last surveyed marine fisheries stocks in the 1970s, he said.

Sri Lanka's marine catch was 417,000 metric tonnes in 2012 up 8.3 percent from 385,000 tonnes in 2011, data from the Central Bank showed. Aquaculture and inland fisheries had produced another and 69,000 metric tonnes, up from 60,000 in 2011.

The industry is mostly focused around coastal and off-shore fisheries.

In 2012, the offshore fishery catch had declined 02 percent to 159,680 metric tonnes, and coastal fisheries were the biggest segment contributing more than 50 percent of the total.

Fisheries minister Rajitha Seneratne said last month that fishing vessels from Japan to be run by Koyoshi Kimura, a sushi restaurant chain owner known as 'Tuna King' and another 20 vessels from China were expected to be licensed for deep sea fishing later this year.

Sri Lanka's fisheries sector has expanded after the end of a 30-year war in 2009, during which curbs were imposed on fishermen in the north and the east. But they are mostly engaged in coastal fisheries.

Sri Lanka has also faced poaching by Indian fishers on its northern waters.