The fishery improvement project for the blue swimming crab off the north and northwest coast of Sri Lanka has added a voluntary code of conduct designed to improve its management, according to Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods, a major buyer from the fishery.
The new code of conduct will formalize the registration of fishing operations, including the use of spatial and temporal measures to regulate fishing effort and study the impact of fishing on local critical marine habitats. The FIP will also begin tracking and regulating the type, number, mesh size and height of fishing bottom-set crab nets and providing for the safe disposal of fishing gear, according to COSFF.
“Introducing a voluntary code of conduct based on fishermen’s knowledge of how to manage the fishery, is simple and inclusive way of transitioning the fishery towards a formal, legally binding regulation,” FIP Project Coordinator Steve Creech said.
The code of conduct was created through input from the local fishing communities and technical advice from the department of fisheries, Creech said. The local fishing communities, as well as Taprobane Seafood Group, Sri Lanka’s only pasteurized blue crab manufacturer, and the Sri Lankan Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources all aided in the process and have backed the FIP and updated code of conduct.
The recommendations were researched and developed by the SLBSC FIP, which received financial assistance from Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods (COSFF), the only US importer of pasteurized blue swimming crab products from Sri Lanka.
“Supporting the FIP’s efforts to improve the management of blue swimming crab fisheries in Sri Lanka is a keystone investment for Thai Union and COSFF,” Thai Union North America Director of Sustainability Jennifer Woofter said.
A recent site visit by officials representing the Australian government and the International Labour Organisation resulted in pledges from both parties to continue to support the fishery. Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Concetta Fierravanti-Wells recently visited Taprobane’s primary processing facility in Killimochchi to observe whether FIP was improving local livelihoods in a region that had been particularly affected by Sri Lanka’s lengthy civil conflict, which ended in 2009. Fierravanti-Wells praised the FIP’s positive impact and its contribution to post-conflict development and reconciliation.
Joseph Michael Connelly, the chief technical expert of the International Labour Organisation’s Local Empowerment through Economic Development project, also took part in the visit. Afterwards, he said he was confident Australia’s Department of Foreign Aid and Trade will continue to support improvements to the blue swimming crab fisheries and replicate the FIP process with other small-scale export fisheries.
“Ensuring that producer organizations are fully integrated into the supply chains for blue swimming crab products is a crucial component of improving these fisheries,” Connelly said.
