UN Secretary-General António Guterres has issued a scathing condemnation of the large-scale illegal fishing and bottom trawling operations plundering Sri Lankan waters, warning that greed and weak international accountability are pushing ocean ecosystems to the brink.
Responding to a question on Sri Lanka’s decade-long struggle against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing particularly by Indian vessels Guterres said the UN is working to strengthen global accountability for such destructive practices, which are ravaging marine life and livelihoods across vulnerable coastal regions.
“We need to develop better accountability mechanisms for illegal fishing and for the exploitation of fisheries resources,” he said at a press briefing on Monday. “We are doing our best to increase international accountability mechanisms, which are clearly very limited and ineffective.”
Thousands of Indian trawlers continue to enter Sri Lankan waters weekly, despite a well-defined and internationally recognized maritime boundary between the two nations. These vessels, often using banned bottom trawling equipment, cause irreversible damage to the seabed and deplete fish stocks that local fishing communities in Sri Lanka’s north and east rely on for survival.
Guterres also used the opportunity to highlight the new UN-backed international treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), aimed at protecting marine biodiversity in international waters. Known as the BBNJ Agreement, it has already been signed by 134 countries and ratified by 49.
“This agreement is a historic step towards protecting vast areas of our oceans,” Guterres said, urging the remaining countries to ratify the deal. “We have no time to give up.”
In a hard-hitting warning on climate change, overfishing, and plastic pollution, Guterres didn’t mince words: “Sustainable fishing is not an option. It’s our only option.”
“There is a tipping point approaching, beyond which recovery may be impossible,” he cautioned, accusing “powerful interests” of driving ecological collapse. “We are fighting a fierce battle against a clear enemy greed. Greed that sows doubt, denies science, distorts truth, rewards corruption and destroys life for profit.”
He called on governments, corporations, scientists, and citizens to stand united to protect the oceans from exploitation, asserting that the very future of the planet is at stake.
The comments have struck a chord in Sri Lanka, where the fishing crisis continues to spark political and social unrest, especially in the island’s war-affected northern communities already grappling with economic hardship and declining food security.
