Brief history and background of aquaculture and fish health in Sri Lanka In the past, the Sri Lankan fish industry was mainly comprised of capture fisheries, with a heavy dependence on the marine section. Landings from inland fisheries increased enormously following the introduction of the tilapia Oreochromis mossambicus (Peters) in 1952. Sri Lanka has a high potential for the development of freshwater fisheries in its several thousand irrigation reservoirs. Therefore, in the last few decades, attention has been focused on reservoirs mainly for the following reasons; their high potential. there is less cost incurred in their development than in marine fisheries, and because of their great socio-economic importance with regard to food supply and employment opportunities.