Fisheries Management Areas

pelagikos has been working with fishing communities and Fisheries District Offices of the DFAR since 2017 to declare FMAs one each at the Fisheries District Office level. The declaration of Fisheries District Fisheries District FMAs, the formation of Fisheries Committees at the Fisheries Inspector Division level and Fisheries Management Coordinating Committees at the district level are simple, practical and administratively apposite ways to move coastal fisheries from instructive to consultative or collaborative forms of management.

Fisheries Management Areas: The legal provisions for managing fisheries at the local level are set out under Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Amendment) Act, No. 35 of 2013. Key provisions include declaration of Fisheries Management Areas; establishment of Fisheries Management Coordinating Committee, Fisheries Committees and Fisheries Development and Management Plans for each FMA Development and Management Plans. 18 FMAs have been declared to date, however Fisheries Development and Management Plans have yet to be prepared by the Fisheries Management Coordinating Committee and or approved by the Director General an or gazetted by ministry.

Fisheries Management: DFAR officers based in 15 Fisheries District Officers - together with the Management Division of the DFAR in Colombo - are responsibility for managing and regulating 100,000 coastal fishermen, operating 45,000 or so small scale fishing craft, harvesting more than 30 species of pelagic and demersal finfish, assorted crustaceans, molluscs and holothurians at 760 landing centres along Sri Lanka’s 1,700 km coastal line. Almost all of the 100 or more coastal fisheries / populations are seasonal and some target stocks are migratory.

Useful links and downloads
Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (Amendment) Act, No. 35 of 2013
Declared FMAs and proposed Fisheries District FMAs
Types of fisheries management