The Department of Meteorology has issued a fresh Red-level advisory for the sea areas from Matara to Pottuvil via Hambantota, telling fishing and naval communities to stay out of those waters until 7.00 a.m. on Monday.
The advisory, issued on Sunday (9), warns that the stretch will be very rough at times with strong gusty winds reaching up to 60 kmph.
The highest band has contracted
Sunday’s bulletin replaces Saturday’s advisory, which expired at 8.30 a.m. on Sunday and had placed two separate stretches in the Red band — Chilaw to Mannar via Kalpitiya as well as the Matara–Pottuvil zone.
The northwestern stretch has now been dropped a tier. Under the new bulletin, the sea from Chilaw via Trincomalee, Kankesanturai and Mannar, and from Galle to Matara, will be rough at times with gusts of up to 50 kmph.
Wind speeds have eased across both bands. Saturday’s Red zones carried gusts of 60-70 kmph and its lower band 50-60 kmph, against 60 kmph and 50 kmph respectively on Sunday.
The trade-off is duration. Where Saturday’s warning ran for under a day, the new order keeps the southeastern waters closed for a further 22 hours.
A costly spell for the fleet
The Matara–Pottuvil zone has now been under the highest warning band, on and off, since a Red warning was issued for it on Thursday.
The weather has already proved lethal. Five fishermen died in weather-related incidents at sea earlier this month, before restrictions were widened.
Sunday’s easing of the northwest coast restores access for boats working out of Kalpitiya and Puttalam, an area the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources had cleared for fishing on Wednesday only to see it placed back under a no-go warning three days later.
On land, the department’s Sunday forecast carries no rainfall threshold for the first time this week, though strong winds of 40-50 kmph are still expected across five provinces.
Update: Fisheries Department orders small boats to stay ashore
The Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources issued its own urgent warning later on Sunday, telling small coastal vessels and one-day fishing boats not to put to sea anywhere between Matara and Pottuvil.
The department said it acted on the strong wind advisory the Met Department issued the same day, and that conditions posed a serious threat to coastal fishing.
Boats operating out of other parts of the coast were also told to keep clear of the Matara–Pottuvil zone even where no hazardous conditions had been reported in their own areas — an instruction aimed at vessels that would otherwise steam into the warning area to fish.
The department asked all fishermen to stay alert to subsequent advisories and to follow safety instructions at sea.
A gap in the wind figures
The Fisheries Department’s notice puts wind speeds in the Matara–Hambantota–Pottuvil stretch at up to 70 kmph at times, above the up to 60 kmph carried in the Met Department’s own Red advisory for the same waters on the same day. Both Ada Derana and Hiru News report the higher figure in the fisheries notice.
The two departments have not reconciled the discrepancy publicly. The 70 kmph figure matches the upper bound of Saturday’s Red advisory, which gave 60-70 kmph for the same zone before Sunday’s bulletin eased it.
Sources: Ada Derana, Hiru News, Ada Derana, Hiru News.
