The freshwater fishing industry of Sri Lanka is characterised by four unusual features, the combination of which perhaps makes the industry unique to the Island. Firstly, almost all the landings are from a single type of water body — the reservoirs; secondly, these water bodies are entirely man-made; thirdly, the fishery itself is by and large mono-specific and finally, the species which constitutes the 'back-bone of the industry is an exotic viz. Sarothcrodon mossambicus (Peters) (Synonym : Oreo-, chromis mossambicus).
Much has been written about the reservoir fishery of Sri Lanka (Fernando and Indrasena, 1969; Fernando, 1973; Meridis, 1977; Fernando and De Silva, 1984), and the role of exotics on the fishery (Fernando, 1971; De Silva, 1982). In the above considerations, catch statistics, the likely reasons for the success of the exotic S. mossambicus in the reservoirs and the aspects of the biology in outline, of the constituent species of the fishery, have been dealt with. In this presen­ tation an attempt is made to review the data on available information from a management' point of view, together with those aspects of the biology of the important species which have come into light recently and briefly survey qualitatively, the future strategies of the reservoir fishery with a view to opti­ mization of its yield. The paper deals only with the fishery of reservoirs over 250 ha in surface area and their capture fishery only. The aquaculture potential of these reservoirs arc not considered here (see Wannigama cl. al., 1982).