World Fisheries Day on November 21

World Fisheries day will be observed on November 21 (tomorrow) across the globe including Pakistan to highlight the problems faced by fishing communities, and move towards finding solutions. Fishing communities world-wide celebrate this day through rallies, workshops, public meetings, cultural programs, dramas, exhibitions, and demonstrations to highlight the importance of maintaining the world fisheries.
A recent United Nations study reported that more than two-thirds of the world's fisheries have been overfished or are fully harvested, and more than one third are in a state of decline because of factors such as the loss of essential fish habitats, pollution, and global warming.
The World Fisheries Day helps in highlighting the critical importance to human lives, of water and the lives it sustains, both in and out of water. Water forms a continuum, whether contained in rivers, lakes, and ocean. Fish forms an important part of the diets of people around the world, particularly those that live near rivers, coasts and other water bodies.
A number of traditional societies and communities are rallied around the occupation of fishing. This is why a majority of human settlements, whether small villages or mega cities, are situated in close proximity to water bodies. Besides the importance of water for survival and as a means of transportation, it is also an important source of fish and aquatic protein.
But this proximity has also lead to severe ocean and coastal pollution from run-off and from domestic and industrial activities carried out near-by. This has led to depletion of fish stocks in the immediate vicinity, requiring fishermen to fish farther and farther away from their traditional grounds.
Besides, overfishing and mechanisation has also resulted in a crisis fish sticks are being depleted through 'factory' vessels, bottom trawling, and other means of unsustainable fishing methods.
World Fisheries Day celebrations serve as an important reminder that we must focus on changing the way the world manages global fisheries to ensure sustainable stocks and healthy oceans ecosystems. Just last month, the United Nations General Assembly called on countries that have not yet done so to become a party to the law of the sea, regarding jurisdiction over national and international waters as well as the seabed, and to maintain sustainable fisheries.
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) is a mass based social movement struggling and is striving for the socio-economic rights of the fishing communities of the country. On 21st November, World Fisheries Day, PFF will organise huge public gathering with colorful program in the name fisherfolk mela at Ibrahim Hydri. Thousands of people, civil society organisations, trade unions, social activists, peasants and media personals will join the event in the ceremony.