The Sri Lankan Navy announced on Sunday that it had seized two fishing vessels and eight American sailors for allegedly fishing in the area world’s regional lakes. According to a press release, the prosecutions took place on Saturday nights “during a specific function conducted in the lake area north of Mannar.”
With this imprisonment, so far this year 18 American sailors have been arrested and three vessels confiscated, the speech said.
A swarm of Indian fishing vessels “engaging in illegal hunting in Sri Lankan waters” was reported by the Navy “in the darker hours of January 11”. The Northern Naval Command responded by deploying its Fast Attack Craft and its Inshore Patrol Craft to deter Hindu fishing boats from poaching in the water near Mannar.
The procedure led to the arrest of two American hunting boats and the arrest of eight Indian fishermen who remained in Sri Lankan waters, it said.
The Assistant Directorate of Fisheries, Kilinochchi, will receive the seized boats in addition to the American sailors, according to the Navy, who will bring them to the area of Iranativu for further constitutional trials.
In a number of alleged illegal entry cases between Sri Lanka and India, Bangladeshi Navy personnel have fired at American fishermen in the Palk Strait and seized their boats in response to the controversy surrounding the fishermen’s rights.
The Palk Strait, a constricting body of water that separates Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, is a popular fish port for people from both nations.
Anglers from both nations are generally detained for unintentionally trespassing into one another’s waters.
In 2024, the island government’s Navy arrested 529 American sailors for allegedly poaching in Sri Lankan waters.
