Sri Lanka to establish a new Vessel Monitoring System
The Government has taken steps to establish a new Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) to monitor the thousands of multi day fishing boats in the Sri Lankan seas.
The government has observed that new technology has to be incorporated for the sustainable management of the island's fisheries industry and the implementation of the global concept of the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) has become mandatory.
The European Commission proposing a ban on imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka earlier this month said Sri Lanka is authorizing huge vessels to fish in the Indian Ocean without marine GPS (VMS) which is in violation of Commission's regulations on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The proposed VMS Project will supply 3000 VMS transceivers to the fishing boats and equipment for the Fisheries Monitoring Centre to monitor the position of the fishing boats via satellite and provide maintenance and support of the equipment, elements and software for a period of ten years.
According to the government about 3000 multi-day fishing vessels owned by Sri Lankan fishermen are being operated in the deep sea and in international waters in the Indian Ocean.
The Cabinet approved a proposal made by Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Development Rajitha Senaratne to proceed with the related activities for the establishment of the Vessel Monitoring System as recommended by the Cabinet Appointed Procurement Committee (CAPC).
(ST/KH)
