With the cyclonic disturbances that traversed around the Andaman Islands, it turned into a low-pressure area in southeast of the Bay of Bengal, about 1,000 km from Sri Lanka by 13th May 2020. As of 16th May 2020 the situation turned out to be a storm and it showed signs to be more worsening.
In this backdrop, the Department of Meteorology, Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Sri Lanka Navy have been continuously educating the fishing community on this matter. However, by that time more than 50 Sri Lankan multi-day fishing trawlers were fishing in the IMBL, about 400 and 500 nautical miles off the shores and some of these vessels were swept towards Indonesia, due to the impact of the storm.
In the meantime, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC), which operates under the Sri Lanka Navy, notified the Indonesian-Rescue-Coordination-Center about the developing situation and as a result of that the distressed vessels were permitted to remain in the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone.
Meanwhile, the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources informed the Navy that there were no fuel, food and water which required for the return of 36 of those vessels and there were mechanical faults in several vessels.
It is in this backdrop, the Navy on 21st May 2020 deployed one of its Offshore Patrol Vessel SLNS ‘Samudura’ to render necessary assistance to the distressed fishing vessels. Subsequently, the naval vessel advised all fishing vessels to sail towards Sri Lanka, after she had established communications with all the vessels in distress.
Accordingly, on 23rd May 2020 SLNS ‘Samudura’ first spotted the fleet of fishing trawlers swept away by the storm, about 550 nautical miles off the coast of Sri Lanka. Over the next two days, the naval ship continued to provide food, water, fuel, medical aid and repair assistance to these distressed vessels.
These distressed multi-day fishing trawlers had departed from Kudawella, Ambalangoda and Galle fisheries harbours between 18th April and 05th May 2020. Responding promptly to this eventuality, the Navy managed to safely bring all these vessels and all the fishermen of these vessels to waters just off the Sri Lankan coast.
SLNS ‘Samudura’ which was deployed for this special mission has contributed to the execution of a number of successful naval operations, including the destruction of LTTE floating armouries. Apart from that she also made her mark in recent drug seizures in high seas by the Navy.
