The Sri Lanka Navy has seized an Indian fishing trawler along with nine fishermen for fishing inside Sri Lankan waters off Urumalei Point, Talaimannar.
The trawler crossed the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) into Sri Lankan waters on Wednesday (12) and was engaged in bottom trawling when it was intercepted, the Navy said.
The nine fishermen and the vessel are to be handed over to the Fisheries Inspector of Mannar for further legal proceedings.
Bottom trawling — dragging weighted nets across the seabed — has been prohibited in Sri Lanka since 2017. Northern fishing communities have long argued that the practice strips the seabed and destroys the shallow-water grounds they depend on, and it remains the central grievance in the recurring dispute over Indian vessels crossing the boundary line in the Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar.
Seizures of this kind are a regular occurrence. Sri Lankan authorities have detained multiple Indian trawlers in recent weeks, and in early August the Navy rescued the crew of an Indian trawler that ran aground off Delft Island. The arrests are a persistent irritant in relations between the two countries, with Indian authorities regularly pressing for the early release of detained fishermen.
