Abstract:
The world wide fishing activities are being increased with the increase of demand for fish. Therefore, competition for low cost fishing is increased to meet the increasing demand. It has been resulted the increase of IUU fishing activities. Because of this, responsible fishing concept has developed for the sustainability of fishery resources. The regional resolutions for avoiding IUU fishing activities have developed by IOTC (Indian Ocean Tuna Commission). Sri Lanka also has to obey these IOTC resolutions as one of its members. In Sri Lankan fisheries sector, especially the multiday fishermen who are engaging in high seas fishing operations have the ultimate responsibility to comply these resolutions. Therefore awareness of multiday fishermen on these international resolutions is very important.
This case study was done by taking a selected sample from multiday fishermen of Matara fisheries district for evaluating the attitudes and awareness of the international resolutions on responsible fishing. The sample was selected through the Stratified random sampling technique and the minimum sample size was determined using "Moving average techniques". Data was collected using a questionnaire which was prepared considering international resolutions which has a high impact to Sri Lankan fisheries sector and using secondary sources. Collected data was analyzed using "Likert scale" and One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) on 95% confidence interval.
According to this study, the awareness of multiday fishermen in Matara fisheries district is medium level (Mean Likert value is 3.38). But there are differences of responses according to the questions and there is a significant difference in responses for some questions according to the types of stakeholders. All in all, it is very important to increase both awareness and attitude of multiday fishermen of Matara fisheries district on international resolutions using new strategies and media which are much closed to them.
