Nicholas Anthony Fernando, a boat builder from Negombo having only studied up to grade eight says that this has been his job since then.
He has done both fishing and boat building meaning he has been in the fishing industry all along.
He says the first problem is that the parents don't like to send their children into the fishing industry as they want to give their children an education and hope to send their children to different places.
In this type of fishing industry there isn't much expected income.when you look at Sri Lanka it is difficult to be in that economy
He says it is different for the people who do it on a large scale take out boats which are 50 to 60 feet long. They are all big businessmen who pump fuel by the bowserload and taking lots of ice. That is one side of the business but for the small time fishermen feel it is impossible to keep up in this industry.
Now since they are educated, they don't look for jobs in the fishing industry, having expectations of getting jobs on land they are looking for jobs abroad. He says they will get onto some boat and leave popular places he quoted are Australia or Italy as he says everyone goes there.
In that particular parish area in Negombo, there were initially 120 catamarans. Overtime it has reduced to 65. Out of this 65 only about 50 are in operation as there are no people to operate the rest of the 15 catamarans. So now only about 50 catamarans go out to sea daily. Not boats but catamarans.