JAFFNA, Sri Lanka -- Along Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna coast, fishermen in T-shirts and sarongs grumbled about their poor catch the previous night. As they mended their blue nets spread out close to the lapping sea, the men complained about how the only fish they could sell was a meager haul of barracuda, Indian mackerel and milk shark.
There is no mystery as to what is sapping the livelihoods of these men who are the breadwinners of their families. "It is the Indian trawlers, fishing illegally in Sri Lankan waters at night," said Rajendran Mathiyalagan, a 50-year-old fisherman standing on the shore of Valvettithurai, a small town on the northern tip of the Jaffna peninsula, which is just 30 kilometers from India's southern coast. "They come in the hundreds in their big boats, like an entire village in the sea, tearing our fishing nets and scooping up all the fish."
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