KARACHI: Fishermen hit hard by unregulated fishing
By Latif Baloch
KARACHI, May 4: Fishermen living in coastal areas of Karachi and Sindh have urged the government to provide them alternative sources of income as fisheries sector is under tremendous pressure and could hardly meet their economic needs.
The fishermen who live in abject poverty say they have no alternative sources of income because of centuries-old socio-economic conditions and their bare survival depends on fishery which is currently under tremendous pressure due to multiple factors.
An elderly fisherman admitted that overfishing by local and foreign trawlers had ruined coastal economy and brought untold miseries to small fishermen. According to him, the unregulated fishing by the mechanized trawlers in the coast of Sindh had not only wiped out fish species, but they had also deprived small fishermen of their livelihood.
Despite repeated protests from the fishing communities of Sindh and Balochistan, the government did nothing to stop the harmful practice which is still continuing.
The fishermen said that time had come that the government should act promptly in the interest of fishermen and to save them from further ruination by putting a complete ban on fishing by mechanised trawlers in the coasts of Sindh.
Fisheries sources claim that Sindh possess enormous resources which are still untapped and needs more mechanization and greater fleets for being properly tapped.
But the indigenous fisherfolk communities claimed a major decrease in the fish species. They even claimed that a number of fish species, which were in abundance in the past, have now completely become extinct.
A survey shows that each family has an average of 8 to 12 children. Due to lack of alternatives, these youngsters try to find their livelihood from the common resources of sea, being exploited by their forefathers.
This puts a pressure on the fisheries' livelihoods in the coastal Sindh. However, the major population pressure on the coastal livelihoods is exerted due to the entry of the people, belonging to other livelihood sectors, into the fisheries sector.
It is also learnt that the first diversion of the major population towards the fishing sector was recorded with a decrease in the fresh water flow in the Indus River after the commissioning of various barrages, reservoirs and dams on it.
A study reveals that before the construction of such dams and barrages, the discharge from the river was large enough to push back the ocean currents up to over a hundred miles from the shore.
It is learnt that due to this enormous quantity of fresh water and silt the river brought with it, the delta lands were believed to be the richest in the area. Agriculture was seasonal and the yields were high.
Fishing was then a minor activity. However, with the reduction in fresh water flow, major ecological changes took place as a result of the sea moving into the delta channels.
All the communities who were previously engaged in agriculture and livestock grazing have completely shifted their livelihoods towards the fisheries resulting in greater pressures on this only sector of livelihood in the coastal regions of Sindh.
