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Sri Lanka Navy Journal 57

drainage mechanism as well. Due to that, the Indian Ocean is deteriorating and
it will badly affect the dwellers of the coastal areas as most of the population is
living in the coastal areas. In addition to the land-based pollution, marine-based
pollution is taken place by shipping (spillage, ballast water), drilling and
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mining . Illegal waste-dumping also considered as a serious concern on marine
environment. The waters off Somalia is badly polluted due to non-public
awareness, influential and local authorities have allowed toxic waste dumping
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on exchange of foreign payments . Further, some European companies found
that it is easy and cheaper to dump the waste in Somalian water than the other
parts of the world. Due to that serious economic implications and health-related
issues have been occurred in this region.

Security of Ocean Resources

The energy consumption of Asia and Middle-East has been intensified due to
the rapid growth in global prosperity and technological advances. India and China
can be predicted as the fastest-growing countries and key energy consumers as
well. Hence, competing for resources in and under the ocean is rapidly growing
significantly. Emerging the conflict between countries for energy competition and
securing of energy shipments would not be able to rule out. Illegal, Unreported
and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is the major problem internationally and 75% of
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global fishing stocks are already exploited or overexploited . Further, they are
mostly foreign-flagged operators who decimate the ocean resources as well as
the venturing into coastal water and damage the fishing gears of local fishermen.

Not only the foreign fishermen, but also the local fishermen report undervalued
or misreport catches and they also use illegal fishing gears. Sometimes they
use dynamite or poison since those methods are very much lucrative than
the traditional fishing gears. When we consider the African countries, they are
suffering from serious economic losses by not being able to have the fishing
stock due to lack the ability to patrol their own waters and the threat of pirate
attacks has prompted many vessels to avoid some of the richest fishing spots in
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the Indian Ocean .
Smuggling and Human Trafficking

All the organized crimes including drug trafficking and human smuggling
have been connected with global pattern of violence. The Indian Ocean is an
easy access for drugs and arms smuggling to the unscrupulous traders and
non-state actors who can deliver and distribute their wares including weapons,
drugs and counterfeit medicines since there are many countries like Horn of
Africa, Afghanistan and Indonesia including Sri Lanka also which conflicts and
9 Ships' ballast tanks to improve stability, balance and trim.
10 Security council, U. (2019). Report of the Secretary-General on the protection of Somali nat-
ural resources and waters.
11 Fao.org. (2019). The State Of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006.
12 Afdb.org.(2019).https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/
Maritime%20Piracy_Maritime%20Piracy.pdf.