Rs. 800 m to be spent:

Non-traditional fishery projects for North

Shirley Wijesinghe

The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Ministry is to introduce non- traditional fishery development projects to enhance the livelihood of fishermen in the North. The Ministry hopes to spend over Rs. 800 million through four different projects, for this purpose

According to Ministry Secretary G. Piyasena, the project has been planned to fall in line with the "Uthuru Vasanthaya" accelerated development drive.

Rare varieties of sea leeches, sea plants, sea oysters and sea cage culture will be introduced under four different projects. The main objective of the project is to veer away the fishermen of the North from traditional fishings modes and get them adapted to fishing activities on new aquatic resources which have better export market values than traditional fishing.

The aquatic species to be introduced through the new projects have a very good market at international level, Piyasena said. The Ministry has also planned to distribute fishing gear worth Rs. 26 million free among the selected fishermen of the Mannar district with assistance from the Cey- Nor Foundation.