KARACHI -- Fishermen in Pakistan these days are holding protest meetings and rallies against the use of tidal trap nets. Dubbed as "bhola," "gujja," and "katra" nets in local languages, these nets do not spare even the juvenile fish. They are, thereby, hitting hard at sustainable fishery and making it impossible for thousands of fishermen to earn their livelihood, and feed their families. Though banned by the government, unscrupulous elements use these nets without any let or hindrance.
Several thousand fisher folk, including a large number of women, staged a rally at Karachi Fish Harbour. The rally was a part of an on-going campaign launched by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, a small but effective NGO (Non-Governmental Organization.).
Over-fishing and pollution continue to threaten the marine resources and the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in Pakistan. This could be gauged from the fact that about 300 million gallons (MGD) of untreated industrial and municipal waste is thrown into the Arabian Sea every day. The ratio between land and sea pollution in Karachi is 1:10, according to an official who requested not to be named.
No wonder the callousness of an indifferent bureaucracy has transformed Karachi Harbour into a septic pool.
The existing scenario points to an alarming situation. Fisherfolk are worried over diminishing catches and extinction of several valued fish species over the years. The fish catch has dropped by 70 per cent due to the abuse of tidal trap nets, claims Mohammad Ali Shah, co-ordinator, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.
As a result of the campaign launched by the NGO, a meeting was held in Karachi on August 23 under the chairmanship of Abdul Rashid Memon, Secretary, Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Government of Sindh. The gathering decided to take action, with the assistance of the Maritime Security Agency (MSA), against people using tidal trap nets. Amongst others who participated in the meeting included Commodore Syed Tayyab Naqvi, Chairman, Fishermen Co-operative Society; Dr. Ghulam Ahmed Memon, Director General, Fisheries Department of Pakistan; Waheed Ahmed, Director, Fisheries Department, and Mohammad Ali Shah, co-ordinator, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum. The meeting decided that tidal trap nets would be forfeited wherever they were found.
But law is seldom implemented in Pakistan, otherwise it would not have been facing pollution of the worst kind. Until 1971 jelly fish, a species highly sensitive to pollution were abundant in Pakistan. They would stick to the bottoms of the ships and divers were needed to remove them, a senior official recalled. Today, jelly fish are found nowhere.
Similarly, whales were sometimes found at Cape Monz, a beach at about 40 km south west of Karachi along the Arabian Sea and on the border between Lasbella district of Balochistan and Karachi district of Sindh province. Cape Monz was once an estuarine area where the Hub River used to fall into the Arabian Sea.
The fresh water discharge from the Hub River has been disrupted as a result of construction of the Hub dam. The river estuary thus remains mostly dry. It is only during heavy rainfall or flood season that the estuary has fresh water. Amazingly, dolphins once came into the Karachi Harbour, an official recalled.
The situation has changed, and for the worse. Manora Channel situated near Karachi Fish Harbour has lost oysters. There is a declining trend of fish catches of Palla (Tenualora ilisha), Bombil (Harcadon nehereus), Bambore (Sillago Sihama), Dangri (Lates calcarifer), and Mallah (Letchrinus spp.) in Sindh, one of the most impoverished provinces of Pakistan, according to Aly Ercelawn, an independent economist.
More than 18,000 small fishing boats are registered with the Marine Fisheries Department in Karachi, at least 12,000 of them are operational along the 999-km coastal line of Pakistan.
The adverse effect of prohibited nets is not the only danger to sustainable fishery in Pakistan. A greater threat is posed by deep-sea trawling. These trawlers have been combing the territorial waters of Pakistan for a long time, indulging in poaching and under-reporting besides polluting the sea by throwing bycatch (unwanted species) into the sea. Deep-sea trawling was banned by the military government of President General Pervez Musharraf for a while but recently the ban has been lifted.
Although deep-sea trawlers are supposed to operate beyond 35-miles of the coastal belt, a weak surveillance network and a corrupt bureaucracy tacitly allow the owners of these trawlers to violate the law.
As early as 1998, a report compiled by Save the Children Fund warned: "With over-fishing a looming problem, the livelihood of the fishing community was considered to be at risk. About 34 trawlers were fishing around the international water boundary, and they were creating immense problems for small and medium-sized fishing boats. If these practices were to continue, the entire fishing communities' livelihood would shortly be at stake. Even at present many boats going out in the sea were coming back with small catches."
As many as 22 stern trawlers and 19 tuna trawlers were operating in Pakistan's territorial waters in 1999 and they discarded 332,000 tons of marine species in 1999-2000 alone.
Deep-sea trawling has a long, exploitative history. According to The Footprint of Distant Water on World Fisheries, a study compiled by the World Wildlife Fund-International, as early as 1575, hundreds of vessels from France, Portugal, and Great Britain were fishing for cod in the productive fishing grounds of the "New World."
"Since World War II the size and catching power of these fleets have grown enormously. The depletion of fish stocks at "home" stimulated a migration of fishing effort in search of more "productive water," the study said. Since the world fishing fleets possess "more than twice" the level of catching power needed to achieve a catch level that would not deplete stocks, it is not surprising that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called upon states to "take measures to prevent or eliminate excess fishing capacity." This will require revision of existing agreements of fisheries so as to contain depletion and make the stocks sustainable. However "developing coastal states are often unable to insist on the inclusion of terms and conditions needed to ensure against over-fishing, because of their need for the compensation provided in access agreements," according to the study.
With as many as 40.1 per cent of its people living below the poverty line and unemployment growing at the rate of 6.7 per cent per annum, Pakistan can hardly resist pressure from affluent states where deep-sea trawlers are registered.
Deep-sea trawlers have also been indulging in under invoicing and under reporting, but the ban imposed on them has been lifted.
Suffering a shortage of foreign exchange, Pakistan is trying all options to boost its exports. Fishery happens to be an important sector in this regard. Exports in the previous year - 2000 -- were to the tune of $137 million and they may rise by $50 million in fiscal year 2001 amid a downward slide in prices by 19 per cent. The exports have increased in terms of volume by 21 per cent but dropped in terms of value
Less income for more goods. This is a result of globalisation!?
