KARACHI - Despite having a massive coastal belt of 1,000 kilometers which was almost equivalent to the coastal belt of Thailand, Pakistan only earns around $300 to $400 million by exporting marine products whereas countries like Thailand and Vietnam have been earning billions of dollars every year through this important sector of the economy.
The action taken by the Ministry against factories using fish seed for production of poultry feed, numerous raids were conducted and factories were also sealed but the factory owners of poultry feed approached the honorable court and acquired stay orders which refrain Ministry from taking action against people who were really responsible for destroying the fish seed and under-sized fish by encouraging fishermen to use zero-sized prohibited nets. Talking over the recent initiative taken by the government a feed miller on the basses of anonymity inform The Nation, they will not use the small fish for chicken feed, but fewer feed mills still using that type of fish. He further informed that as per the information provided by the Marine Fisheries Department now they are using another type of fish for chicken feed.
On the side Mohammad Ali Shah Chairman Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum expressed serious concern over the marine life of Pakistan especially costal areas of the Sindh. He informed The Nation, there were so many initiatives taken by the current and previous governments but we were not seen any implementation, he added and said it is not the way to just banned those fishermen’s who are using prohibited net, government should facilitate them by giving alternates. There are around ten thousand fishermen using that type of net out of fifty thousand. We have lost our seventy percent marine live and it is necessary for the government to draw a policy to save the marine live and ecology. It is also addressed the sea pollution and create awareness about the use of harmful nets.
In a country like Switzerland if a fisherman was caught hunting under-sized fish, a heavy penalty of $35,000 is imposed but unfortunately in Pakistan, fishermen and trawlers fearlessly use prohibited nets to catch undersized fish and fish seeds. The overall situation has worsened to such a level that some of the most precious fish species have completely disappeared from the coastal belts of Pakistan. Federal and provincial governments are agreed to launch a crackdown against fishermen using `Gujjo` net, which is depleting the marine life at a face pace. The banned net traps small fish and eggs used by processing units in making chicken feed. The Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) has been directed to only allow use of nets of 55mm for catching fish and 25mm nets for shrimps. Fishing by trawlers has been banned with the mutual consent of both provincial and federal governments and it was decided to activate the Marine Security Agency (MSA) to control the menace.