Fishermen and seafood exporters at a seminar here on Tuesday urged the government to discourage the use of small meshes through brisk measures to save the marine species from extinction in the country's around 1100 km coastline. The government officials underlined the need of two-month fishing ban from June 1 to July 31 so that the shrimp could reach its full size, besides protecting the marine stocks of vertebrates and invertebrates species.
Speaking at a seminar, which was organised by Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association (Pakfea) at a local hotel on the issue of declining marine stocks in the country's seawaters, former director of Fishermen Co-operative Society (FCS) Shafi Muhammad Jamote said the government failed to protect the sea from industrial and residential pollution.
He held the rising pollution behind the mass exodus of species to off the coastal areas of Karachi, besides the over fishing and huge operative fleet of boats. Jamote said that the Karachi coast has the capacity of 300 hundred fishing boats to operate, as a survey suggested some 20 years ago, while there are now over 10,000 such boats plying.
He called for immediate holding elections in the FCS to settle the fishermen's issues with an elected board. DG Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) Moazam Khan urged the fishermen to follow the government policy of two-month fishing ban, which will resultantly help them catch the marine species for quite a long period.
He cited the example of Kuwait, which suffered the extinction of marine species for their over-exploitation, saying that its stocks landing reduced to 500 kgs from 30,000 metric tons a year within no time. He said the increasing fleet of fishing boats and use of small nets are hindering the growth of juvenile species of shrimp in their natural hatcheries. He added that the ban is must because these species attain growth during June and July every year and tend to move from shallow to rather deeper waters of the sea to feed them.
However, the Balochistan government allowed the trawlers in 1962 but shortly it banned them from exploiting the marine resources in 1967, Moazam informed the participants. Expressing surprise, he said that instead of compensating the fishermen financially during the two-month fishing ban, all efforts are made to somehow prove the restriction wrong. He said that the MFD carries out a marine stock monitoring every two years to judge the level of the available resources and their existence.
Dispelling the impression, DG MFD said that the shrimp species do not travel longer into Indian or Iranian waters and always remained around their birthplace near the coastlines. Assistance Professor at Centre of Excellence Marine Biology, Zarien Ayub highlighted the aspects of shrimp breeding and their lifecycle through a presentation. She said globally there is a standard for catching shrimp.
The standard specifies the catch size and no one can tramp species from a restricted quantity, she added. A seafood exporter, Akhlaq Hussain Abedi urged the government to implement its fishing policy to bring out the marine life from an extensive fishing so that their growth could take place. He regretted that the banks do not provide the seafood exporters with loans, which making impossible for them to make value-addition in the seafood products.
President Bona Fide Fishermen and Boat Owners Welfare Association, Asif Bhatti expressed fears over the depleting marine resources. He said that the industrial pollution is causing the fish and shrimp species to move off the coast. The sewerage water spelling from Boat Basin area of Karachi is also creating disturbance for sea animals in creeks and harbour waters.
He said that the sewerage water of MFD, KPT and KFHA is also falling into the sea, besides the chemical waste of factories. He urged the government to take steps to control the declining stocks of marine animals before their extinction. Earlier, Sindh Fisheries Minister Zahid Ali Bhurgari said that the government is making efforts to resolve the fishermen's problems. The government also wants to lift the socio-economic standards of fishermen of the province. Chairman Pakfea Faisal Iftikhar gave his welcome address.