Fishermen perturbed over boat congestion

Boats congestion continues to create hurdles insides the navigational channels of Karachi fish harbour for the incoming vessels to unload seafood catch, fishermen said on Wednesday. Talking to Business Recorder, the fishermen said that the abandoned boats were still parked inside the navigational channel of fish harbour, barring vessels from sailing to the landing jetties. They said that the congestion kept incoming vessels waiting outside the harbour for hours.
"It is now getting very difficult especially for the small fishing boats to enter the harbour and then unload the catch at the jetty," President Native Islanders Fishermen Association (Nifa), Asif Bhatti said that "the fleet of fishing vessels has already outgrown to the size of harbour channel to sail smoothly".
He said that the channel could park maximum 700 boats of medium or small size whereas the number of vessels had surpassed 3000, which continued to create congestion inside the harbour waters. "The Sindh Fisheries and Karachi Fish Harbour Authority have failed to weed out the abandoned or dysfunctional boats of the harbour," he said. "The KFHA has also failed to regulate the vessels traffic at the harbour to scale down the congestion and help the vessels unload their catch without waiting for long," Bhatti said, adding that the small fishermen continued to face such a problem on a regular basis. "There is no landing facility at all for the small boats," he added.
When contacted the officials of KFHA, they said that the harbour congestion had been removed for the last three days and fishing vessels were easily sailing through the channel to offload the catch. "Yes there was a congestion which every year happens with new fishing season and takes time to go away," they added.
"If fishermen cooperate with the KFHA then such a situation could be avoided," they said, adding that "the congestion grows because the fishermen park their vessels unruly at the channel during the off season and then blame the KFHA for delays in sailing to the deep-sea". They said that the channel stood now cleared of all kind congestions.