Ministry of Fisheries (Sri Lanka)

The Ministry of Fisheries^[1] (Sinhala: ධීවර අමාත්‍යාංශය; Tamil: கடற்றொழில் அமைச்சு) is the central government ministry of Sri Lanka responsible for fisheries. The ministry is responsible for formulating and implementing national policy on fisheries and aquatic resources development and other subjects which come under its purview.^[2] The current Minister of Fisheries is Douglas Devananda.^[3] The ministry's secretary is K.D.S. Ruwanchandra.^[4]

Ministry of Fisheries

ධීවර අමාත්‍යාංශය கடற்றொழில் அமைச்சு
Ministry overview
Formed	1947; 78 years ago (1947)
Jurisdiction	Government of Sri Lanka
Headquarters	New Secretariat, Sevana Mawatha, Maligawatta, Colombo 6°55′52.90″N 79°52′02.10″E
Annual budget	Rs. 2 billion (2016, recurrent) Rs. 3 billion (2016, capital)
Minister responsible	Ramalingam Chandrasekar, Minister of Fisheries
Ministry executive	K.D.S. Ruwanchandra, Secretary
Child agencies	Ceylon Fisheries Corporation Ceylon Fishery Harbours Corporation Cey-Nor Foundation Limited Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources National Aquaculture Development Authority National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency
Website	fisheries.gov.lk

Ministers

The Minister of Fisheries is a member of the Cabinet of Sri Lanka.

Parties

  Ceylon National Congress   United National Party   Sri Lanka Freedom Party   Mahajana Eksath Peramuna   Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna   Eelam People's Democratic Party   National People's Power

Ministers of Fisheries

Name		Portrait	Party	Took office	Left office	Head of government		Ministerial title	Refs
	George E. de Silva			26 September 1947	1948		D. S. Senanayake	Minister of Industries, Industrial Research and Fisheries	[5][6][7]
	C. Sittampalam		Independent	1948	1948				[5]
	G. G. Ponnambalam		All Ceylon Tamil Congress	3 September 1948					[8][9]
				19 June 1952			Dudley Senanayake	Minister of Industries and Fisheries	[8][10]
					22 October 1953		John Kotelawala		[11]
	William de Silva		Viplavakari Lanka Sama Samaja Party		18 May 1959		S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike		[12][13][14][15]
	W. J. C. Munasinha		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	9 June 1959					[15]
							W. Dahanayake
	Philip Gunawardena		Mahajana Eksath Peramuna	March 1965			Dudley Senanayake		[16][17]
	George Rajapaksa		Sri Lanka Freedom Party				Sirimavo Bandaranaike	Minister of Fisheries	[18]
	S. de S. Jayasinghe		United National Party		26 September 1977		J. R. Jayewardene		[19][20]
	Festus Perera		United National Party	23 July 1977					[19][20][21]
	M. Joseph Michael Perera		United National Party	18 February 1989			Ranasinghe Premadasa	Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Research	[22][23][24]
	Indika Gunawardena		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	19 August 1994			D. B. Wijetunga		[25][26]
	Mahinda Rajapaksa		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	19 October 2000	14 September 2001		Chandrika Kumaratunga	Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development	[27]
				14 September 2001				Minister of Ports, Shipping and Fisheries	[28][29]
	Mahinda Wijesekara		United National Party	12 December 2001				Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources	[30][31][32]
	Felix Perera		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	28 January 2007			Mahinda Rajapaksa	Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources	[33][34][35]
	Rajitha Senaratne			23 April 2010				Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development	[36][37][38][39][40]
	M. Joseph Michael Perera		United National Party	12 January 2015	22 March 2015		Maithripala Sirisena	Minister of Home Affairs and Fisheries	[41][42][43][44]
	Mahinda Amaraweera		Sri Lanka Freedom Party	22 March 2015	26 October 2018			Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development	[45][46][47][48][49][50][51]
	Gamini Vijith Vijithamuni Soysa			29 October 2018	15 December 2018			Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic Resources Development and Rural Economic Affairs
	P. Harrison		United National Party	20 December 2018	29 May 2019			Minister of Agriculture, Rural Economic Affairs, Livestock Development, Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development
	Douglas Devananda		Eelam People's Democratic Party	22 November 2019	14 July 2022		Gotabaya Rajapaksa	Minister of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
	Douglas Devananda			22 July 2022	24 September 2024		Ranil Wickremesinghe	Minister of Fisheries
	Anura Kumara Dissanayake		National People's Power	24 September 2024	18 November 2024		Anura Kumara Dissanayake	Minister of Agriculture, Land, Livestock, Irrigation, Fisheries and Aquatic Resources	[52]
	Ramalingam Chandrasekar			18 November 2024	Incumbent			Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources	[53]

Secretaries

Fisheries Secretaries

Name	Took office	Left office	Title	Refs
A. Damitha N. de Zoysa	25 April 2010		Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Secretary	[54][55]
S. D. A. B. Borelessa	19 January 2015		Home Affairs and Fisheries Secretary	[56][57][58][59]
W. M. M. R. Adikari	8 September 2015		Labour and Trade Union Relations Secretary	[60][61][62]