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Maldives Fishing
Formerly, Maldives shipped 90 percent of its fishing
catch of
tuna in dried form to Sri Lanka. However, because Sri
Lanka cut
back its imports of such fish, in 1979 Maldives joined
with the
Japanese Marubeni Corporation to form the Maldives Nippon
Corporation that canned and processed fresh fish. Also in
1979
the Maldivian government created the Maldives Fisheries
Corporation to exploit fisheries resources generally.
Maldives has an extensive fishing fleet of boats built
domestically of coconut wood, each of which can carry
about
twelve persons. In 1991 there were 1,258 such pole and
line
fishing boats and 352 trawlers. Based on a US$3.2 million
loan
from the International Development Association
(IDA--see Glossary),
most of the boats have been mechanized in the
course
of the 1980s. Although the addition of motors has
increased fuel
costs, it has resulted in doubling the fishing catch
between 1982
and 1985. Moreover, the 1992 catch of 82,000 tons set a
record--
for example, in 1987 the catch was 56,900 tons.
Progress has also been made as a result of fisheries
development projects undertaken by the World Bank. Harbor
and
refrigeration facilities have been improved, leading to a
fourfold increase in earnings from canned fish between
1983 and
1985. Further construction of fisheries refrigeration
installations and related facilities such as collector
vessels
were underway in 1994, with funding both from Japan and
the World
Bank.
Data as of August 1994
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