Abstract:
Small-scale fishing overtheglobeisbasedprimarilyon fisher indigenousknowledge(IK),accumulated
through manygenerationsofcloseinteractionsbetweenpeopleandthenaturalworld.Community-
based beachseine fisher communitiesofsouthernSriLankawerestudiedthroughstandardethno-
graphic methodstoascertainthetraditionalmethodinusing fishers’ IK, andexploreempiricallythe
accuracy inusingthosemethodsdistilledfromthetraditional fishers. Studyrevealedthat,interalia,
traditional fishers useIKtopredictthecommencementof fishing season,andidentifyandquantifythe
species compositionoccurringattheir fishing territory.Tentraditionalmethodsthosewhichare
important foridentifyingandquantifyingthe fish schoolweredistilled.Exploredmethodsfrequently
used bytraditional fishers werebasedonthechangesofseawatercolor(folkoceanography)andthe
behaviourofseaterns(Sterna sp.). Traditional fishers’ responses onfrequencyofutilityofexplored
methods inday-to-day fishing activitieswereinaccordancewiththe findings oftheempiricalstudy.
Moreover,principalcomponentanalysis(PCA)revealedthatPCscoreloadingin fishers’ expectationand
fishers’ realization hadapositivesignificant relationship(r¼0.814, po0.001).Thisindicatedthat
traditional fishers’ expectationoncompositionandquantityof fish schoolarrivingat fishing territory
(ex-ante) isaccurateandreliableattherealization(ex-post). Assuch,thereexistopportunitiesto
fisheries co-managementforthecoastal fisheries inSriLanka,incorporating fishers’ indigenous
knowledgeinresourceexploitation.