Investigation of Critical Issues Associated with Illegal Fishing Practices in Victoria Reservoir, Sri Lanka

Abstract

As illegal fishing is a serious problem in aquatic resource management, a study was conducted to investigate the socioeconomic and management factors affecting illegal fishing practices in the Victoria reservoir in Kandy district All fishers (N=5 5) representing all the landing sites were surveyed twice in January, 2014 and December, 2015 on their socioeconomic status; engagement in, benefits received from and the attitude on the present community based fishery management process. Chi-square procedure (a=0.05) was used to analyze the associations between survey data (treated as categorical variables) and involvement in illegal fishing. The main illegal fishing practices found were the use of monofilament nets; small meshed nets (<88 mm); water beating; and fishing with no license, unregistered boats, or at non-permitted time periods. About 33 percent of fishers were involved in illegal fishing with a maximum of 3 times/fisher. Fishers with primary education had more tendency to involve in illegal activities than others (P<0.05); Fishers having a positive opinion on present management practices of the fisheries organization were significantly less prone to engage in illegal practices (P<0.05). However, alcohol consumption, smoking, positions held in the organization, level of fishing, number of participations in meetings, training programs and raids with officials, subsidies received on nets and boats, licensing of boats, and registration for fishing had no significant association with their engagement in illegal fishing (P<0.05). Alternatively, a co-management strategy was proposed as an efficient reservoir management procedure in which the government and resource users share the responsibilities in the management of the resource.