The government has decided to temporarily halt foreign vessels including those belonging to Japan’s Kiyoshi Kimura alias ‘Tuna King’ from fishing under the Sri Lankan flag in the island’s maritime waters, says the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources.

The ministry says that strong opposition has arisen against several companies registered with the Sri Lanka Board of Investment (BOI) engaging foreign vessels to fish on international seas under the Sri Lankan flag.

The government has said that this temporary suspension on the activities of these foreign vessels is due to action being taken to examine whether these companies have acted in ways to affect the country’s needs, the facilities provided to and the process of action taken by the BOI on these companies.

Dr. Rajitha Senaratne, who is now with common presidential candidate Maithripala Sirisena when he was earlier the Fisheries Minister, had permitted these foreign deep sea vessels to engage in fishing under the Sri Lankan flag on international seas.

Japan’s Kiyoshi Kimura alias ‘Tina King’ who has also engaged six deep sea vessels for fishing in Sri Lankan waters runs a chain of Sushi restaurants in Japan.

Meanwhile, vessels from countries like Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia are registered in Sri Lanka and are fishing in international waters while their catches are exported through Sri Lanka.

Though there are some 3,000 multi-day fishing trawlers in Sri Lanka, only a mere 300 engage in deep sea fishing.