Babarandage don Sarath Appuham, a 59-year-old fisherman, has worked at Negombo Lagoon since he was a teenager. Palpable differences in tide patterns and fish catches from climate change have complicated his work.

“We used to always go at 9am, then 1pm. It’s no longer that predictable,” Sarath told Al Jazeera.

They have to gauge conditions day by day now, he said. Sometimes the waves are too rough to venture out on.

Along Sri Lanka’s 1,700km (1,056 miles) of coasts and lagoons, artisanal fishermen cast and gather their nets several times a day. Nearly half of the country’s animal protein intake comes from fish, close to three times the global average.