The Economic Efficiency of the High Seas Long Line Fishery in Sri Lanka: Special Reference to Dikkowita Harbour of Western Province

Abstract

Sri Lankan Fish and fisheries are sold locally and are equally exported. Retailers, commission agents and assemblers constitute part of the local channels, whereas processors, agents and exporters constitute the export channels. Sri Lanka usually exports its fish and fisheries to America, Europe and South East Asian Country. The excessive local demand for fresh fish and fisheries and dried fish in Sri Lanka come from Thailand, India and Maldives. It is evident that there were ample number of researches performed to study the offshore and coastal fishing in Sri Lanka (Dissanayake, and Sigurdsson, 2005; Laknath et al., 2017; Dias et al., 2018; Herath et al., 2019). However, there is no specific research has been conducted to perform in-depth research about the high sea fishing in Sri Lanka. Also, it is observed that various research focuses on the environmental impacts and sustainability of longline fishing (Baker, and Robertson, 2018; Nagle, 2019; Griffiths et al., 2019) but there is no significant economic impact of it. Thus, it is very important to study the factors that make the major economic growth through high sea fishing. Therefore, this project aims to perform an in-depth study on the economic efficiency of the high seas’ longline fishery in Sri Lanka. This research project provides a special reference to Dikkowita Harbour of Western Province, Sri Lanka. This thesis presents finding based on survey data collected through a representative sample of 54 registered vessels operating in the Dikkowita Harbour. The cost function result shows the relationship between the independent variables i.e. horse power, length of vessel and fishing days, and the dependent variable; total cost. Horse power has a negative relationship with total cost, as one percent rise in horse power results in 0.31% decrease in total cost. Also, a percentage rise in length of vessel and fishing days will lead to 3.58% and 0.46% increases in total cost respectively. From the findings it is identified that more than 50 feet length of vessel has the maximum profit, profit margin. However, ROI is high for vessel length less than 40 feet length of vessel, and vessel length less than 40 ft group has the most cost efficiency while the vessel group with the vessel length between 41 and 45 ft group has the least cost efficiency. This shows that the relationship between total cost and cost efficiency is negative, as cost efficiency increases; the total cost decreases due to the fact that total cost is a function of the cost efficiency.

Keywords: High seas, Fishery, Longline fisheries, Dikkowita Harbour