This paper discusses the role of outrigger canoes, traditional and modern, in Sri Lanka’s fisheries, and their future in the context of the availability of boatbuilding materials. It also discusses the aims and design features of new canoes developed and demonstrated in Sri Lanka with the assistance of BOBP, the Bay of Bengal Programme for Fisheries Development, and the performance of these canoes during trials in Negombo and Dodanduwa in southern Sri Lanka. Some suggestions have been made for future development.

The development work with new outrigger canoes, including the trials, was carried out in co-operation with private fishermen and boatyards.

The outrigger canoe subproject, and this paper which reports on it, have been sponsored by the BOBP’s project “Small-scale fisherfolk communities in the Bay of Bengal,” GCP/RAS/l 18/MUL. The project is funded jointly by SIDA (Swedish International Development Authority) and DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency) and executed by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). The project covers seven countries around the Bay of Bengal (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand). The main goals of the project, which commenced in 1987, are to develop, demonstrate and promote new technologies and methodologies to improve the conditions of smallscale fisherfolk communities in member-countries.