BREAKWATER OR BREAKDOWN
Upali Perera.The rewards for diving for fish exports in Sri Lanka are generous.
A batik sea cucumber brings in 1000 rupees (S$17), while an ordinary string cucumber might be sold for just 80 rupees (S$1.30).
Weather-beaten Upali Perera, 55, operates his business on a beach in Kalmunai, located on Sri Lanka’s east coast. He has made a living from diving for the past 35 years.
Sea cucumbers and chanks are relatively easy to catch, he says. His team – which consists of about four to five divers at each time – catches them by hand at night.
The critters emerge from the sand at about seven in the evening, and burrow back into hiding at one in the morning.
Upali’s team also uses nets to chase ornamental fish to the edge of the reef, after which the fish turn around – and head straight into the nets.
But if the rewards for diving are ample, the risks are just as great.
It is not uncommon to hear of divers who die, or who become seriously injured, while trying to catch these creatures, he adds.
In fact, a 33-year-old diver in his team died just last year, and another, 32 years of age, recently became paralyzed from the waist down because of a diving accident.
Also, about one diver Upali knows dies each year from decompression sickness. They stay down too long – hoping to increase their earnings for the day – and come up too fast, without giving their bodies sufficient time to decompress.
“Even though they know how to use the tanks, and they know what will happen if they don’t decompress, they still go after the money,” says Upali.
Still, keeping his business afloat is a grave concern of his, especially after the tsunami.
Said Upali: “I lost everything. But I had to start work as people had been working for us for a long time, and they needed work.”
Bank loans tided him over the immediate post-tsunami period. He bought two boats, and received three donated ones.
Resources may be tight, but Upali is not tempted to use quick-and-easy destructive fishing practices, such as blast fishing.
Says Upali: “If you heard that there was bombing in Kalmunai, would you come? No. The fish are the same.”
Six sites were surveyed - in the south and southwest, Kapparatota/Weligama, Polhena, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, and Rumassala, and in the northeast, Trincomalee's Dutch Bay.
Most of the damage was caused by the shifting around of dead coral and coral rubble leftover from 1998's bleaching, says Arjan Rajasuriya, from Sri Lanka's National Aquatic Resources Research & Development Agency (NARA).
This damaged the healthier corals.
But most of the damage took place in shallower waters, up to five metres deep. Debris carried out to sea and shifting sands also caused some siltation, says Rajasuriya.
Also, worse damage was observed on land where reefs had been mined for coral lime.
Checks and balances
The nursing grounds will be particularly affected by the damage, says Coral reef expert Jerker Tamelander, coordinator of the Asia Regional Marine Programme at IUCN, the World Conservation Union.
The damage done to the fragile, branching corals will affect the ornamental fish that live on them. If they lose their habitat, they will perish. "The juveniles haven't even had time to reproduce yet," said Tamelander.
Indeed, warning signs have started appearing in areas such as Kalmunai and Kattankudi. Divers report that their daily ornamental fish catch has halved since the tsunami.
"Every fish has its role in the great ecosystem," says Tamelander, adding that man-made damage to the reefs has removed natural controls that would normally keep the ecosystem in balance.
"There are about a million species living on one coral reef," he said. "When you take one species out, you change the dynamics of the reef."
"So the reef can't regenerate fast enough, and it is weaker too."
This holds sinister implications not just for the future of Sri Lanka's marine environment, but also for the industries and people whose livelihoods are inextricably linked to it.
Fragile balancing act
Similarly, this recent blow to Sri Lanka's marine ecological system - albeit compounded by years of poor fishing practices and unrestrained harvesting - will likely deepen the country's socioeconomic concerns.
Sri Lanka seems to be in the middle of a fragile balancing act of weighty socioeconomic and ecological concerns.
For now, government action focuses on sustaining livelihoods.
While no-dwelling areas have been demarcated about 100 metres from the coast, storage facilities, on the other hand, are permitted.
Fishermen and divers have started work once more after a lull period following the tsunami. Till the socioeconomic end of the scale is relatively stable, it looks like Sri Lanka's ecological concerns will have to wait.
"Implementation of existing regulations is almost absent," says Rajasuriya.
"There are areas where blast fishing is carried out freely. It is unfortunate that we are incapable of implementing even the simplest of regulations against these destructive fishing methods."
According to Rajasuriya and Tamelander, who were studying Sri Lanka's reefs intensely even before the tsunami, a number of sociopolitical reasons underlie the persistent reef degradation.
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