Maleesha Gunawardana

Last month, a distressing image of shark carcasses on a fisher’s boat said to be in the vicinity of the Pigeon Island Marine National Park, was widely circulated on social media. Public outrage prompted a response from State Minister of Fisheries, Kanchana Wijesekera, who tweeted that officials from the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources would be investigating allegations of illegal shark fishing in Trincomalee. While results of that investigation have not yet been made public, the shark killing left a trail of questions regarding the protection of shark species in Sri Lanka.