Between 35 and 40 per cent of fish caught, goes waste in Sri Lanka, Senior Fisheries Expert Dr. Siva Subramaniyam said.

Addressing a workshop titled ‘A Glance at Sri Lankan Fisheries Sector’, at the Practical Action Office in Colombo on Monday, to mark the World Fisheries Day, he said, the Government had not insisted on having a cooling system when transporting and storing and had done nothing about it.

He said, usually ice is used for five days, but in Sri Lanka fishermen use it for more than 30 days resulting in 35 to 40 per cent of fish getting rotten.

He said a request had been made by the British to appoint a marine biologist for fisheries but it had not been heeded .

Dr. Siva Subramaniyam, who had served more than 25 countries, said fisheries was one of most highly technical sectors. "We never had correct statistics. Proper extension services which are vital never existed. Nobody could tell how many boats fishermen possessed",

UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Chief Technical Advisor (Fisheries), Simon Diffey, said the fisheries sector needs strategies and planning.

He said the problems faced in Sri Lanka were not unique and were common in other countries too.

He said fisheries science was extremely complicated and it was very dangerous for the government to think that everything was all right.

A recent study by the USAID says that Sri Lanka exported 21,000 metric tons (MT) of fish in 2008 which earned Rs. 19.1 billion or USD 176 million.

The study further said although it was only seven per cent of fish caught in 2008, exported fish accounted for 29 per cent of the total value contributed by the sector to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to Practice Action, fishing is the principal employment for 250,000 persons in Sri Lanka,That was about two per cent of the workforce. Last year (2008), the fishing sector contributed Rs. 66 billion to Lanka’s GDP at current prices . In 2008, 93 per cent of all fish caught in the country was consumed here.

Although the fisheries sector in the island was largely on a small scale it provided direct employment to nearly 300,000 people food security and the generated foreign exchange. Contribution to GDP from the fisheries sector was about three per cent in the year 2006.