Commander (H) Bhanu Abeygunawardhana, Military Research Officer (Sri Lanka Navy) at the INSS, presented a paper titled “Challenges on post-harvest management of Sri Lankan multi-day fishing boats and their implications on the national security of the country” at the 17 th International Research Conference organized by the Sir Kotelawala Defence University on 27 th September 2024.
In his paper, Commander (H) Bhanu Abeygunawardhana emphasized Challenges on post-harvest management of Sri Lankan multi-day fishing boats specifically due to the use of icing method practising by Sri Lankan fishermen when considering the duration recommended for preserving high seas marine post-harvest. Moreover, he has highlighted, that the post-harvest losses in the high seas fishery sector of the country are significant and it is directly affecting the national security of the country in terms of health security, economic security, community security and food security. Importantly, the paper highlighted the requirement of sound implementation of government high seas regulations along with enhancement of post-harvest preservation with an application of basic technology used by many coastal states to preserve or freeze deep-sea marine fish harvest using Refrigerating Sea Water (RSW) Systems or Cooling Sea Water (CSW)system rather use icing method due significant post-harvest losses.