Plenty of fish in Sri Lanka but no way for crews to get to them, as economic crisis bites
- The crisis has left coastal communities short of fuel to send their vessels out to the ocean, and the repercussions are rippling down to dinner tables around the country
- Official figures show the average price of food shot up by 25 per cent in January, as inflation runs rampant
The sky and seas off Sri Lanka’s coast are crystal blue, but a worsening economic crisis has kept fishermen moored at Negombo harbour, out of gas and unable to reel in the day’s catch.
The waters nearby are a tropical bounty of fist-sized prawns and mackerel that normally find their way into the island nation’s staple seafood curries.
But the crisis has left coastal communities short of fuel to send their vessels out to the ocean, and the repercussions are rippling down to dinner tables around the country.
“If we queue up by five in the morning, then we will get fuel by three in the afternoon, on good days,” says Arulanandan, a seasoned member of Negombo’s close-knit fishing community. “But for some, even that is not possible, because by the time they get to the end of the queue, the kerosene is gone.”
Around the local estuary, idle crew members sun themselves on deck or lean against the rails of trawlers bobbing in the water, puffing on cigarettes as they listlessly wait for news of a fresh diesel shipment.
Their ships are equipped to go deep into international waters for weeks at a time but the shortages have prevented most from setting sail.
Other fishermen work closer to land, on smaller kerosene-powered motorboats like Arulanandan’s, but locals say three in every four of these vessels are not working on any given day.
