A Norwegian ship is due to arrive in Pakistan on October 9 to undertake marine life census across the country's 1100 km sea-belt to find out the present condition of several marine species. "The vessel, Frad Jof Nanson, has set out towards Pakistan and hopefully would enter the country's waters on October 9 with the primary aim of kicking off the first major phase of the census," officials of Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) said.
They said that the cost of the census drive is estimated at Rs 495.6 million and would span over around 40 days on the sea to assess the presence of different marine species, including fish, shrimp, crab and other crustaceans. The country had last undertaken such a census some 20 years ago. The this one is second in a row, but not consecutive, and is taking place after one year, as an Iranian vessel- RVII Al-Firdosi, had started ploughing though the sea last November.
Officials said that MFD was primarily executing the census project through hiring foreign technically sound and well-equipped vessels to find out the status of different species beneath the waves and on the seabed. The project had been approved in 2006, to be completed in 2009, but for unknown reasons it could not start and was extended twice, and now will end in June 2011, officials said. Last year, MFD claimed the project cost had been Rs 596 million and it had to end in June 2010.
But the project still carries confusion whether it was approved in 2006 for three years or five years period. Last year, officials said, the project was for five years under public sector development programme and could not start till then for unavailability of a vessel. The ship will carry out the census for consecutive 40 days, gauging all the sea levels at the country's different fishing fields, officials said, adding that compilation of the census report from observations would continue, simultaneously.
Now, officials said, the project is for three years and each assessment year has to span for 125 days, in different spells, from January 15 to November 10. According to project requirements, its first spell had to begin from January 15 to February 10 under the monsoon phase.
From March 15 to April 10, the survey had to go under the clam-sea monsoon phase. The third spell had to start from May 20 to June 15 under the south-west monsoon phase. The fourth and fifth ones had to go from August 15 to September 10 and October 15 to November 10 respectively, under the southwest monsoon phase, the officials added.
Al-Firdosi succeeded to carry out survey of the sea for eight days only, because MFD could not facilitate the Iranian ship, which continued facing problems at different stages. Since arrival until setting out to the census, it linge
ed for some 15 days at seaport for not receiving an intelligence clearance from different concerned authorities, officials said.
The Al-Firdosi episode has been a tragic one in the country's history, as it undertook the project at a time when its crew had decided to abort the trip and leave Pakistan because of unfriendly arrangements they faced from the first day, they said. It may be mentioned here the project execution has been on ad hoc basis, as MFD could not ensure its continuation in five different spells in line with the project demand. "Pakistan must have such a ship to executive the project for at least three consecutive years," the officials said.
The census report from Al-Firdosi's marine survey has not appeared yet, as MFD has been concealing it for unknown reasons. The officials, however, suspected that the last survey had been incomplete; therefore, the department had avoided compiling the report.
Pakistan had such a surveyor ship to undertake census projects, which completed its lifetime in 1993 and eventually the government had to dismantle it. According to MFD, the government made efforts to build a ship for marine stock assessment but failed to do so because such a project needed about Rs 2 billion, while its maintenance and operational costs would be apart. Industrial hazardous waste inflowing from Lyari River into sea has caused a mass exodus of marine animals farther about four nautical miles from harbour waters. There is a certain depletion of marine life in Pakistani waters, however this assessment will prove the original status.
Comments
Comments are closed.