KARACHI: Deep-sea trawlers accused of dead fish dumping
KARACHI, Oct 23: Stakeholders in the fisheries sector have come out with different opinions about emergence of a huge stock of dead fish Mori at a section of the Karachi beach on Thursday night.
The Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) was of the view that the stock had been disposed of by the crew of some deep-sea trawler in order to make room for the new catch of a better quality fish.
An Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) official recalled that such practices by deep-sea trawlers had been witnessed in the past.
He appeared confident that local fishermen could not trash such a big stock of their catch as they would try their best to earn from it.
He, however, said that the Fishermen Cooperative Society (FCS) would undertake an inquiry into the matter.
An office-bearer of the Boat-owners Association said that local fishermen had long been urging the government to prohibit entry of deep-sea trawlers for fishing within the 12-km zone off the coast, but their call had never been heeded.
He observed that the trawlers would do fishing inside the zone but dispose of the entire stock of low-quality fish into the sea as and when they could catch better and priced species.
He called for effective measures to restrain the crew of deep-sea trawlers from indulging in such a damaging practice.
A leading seafood exporter, Capt Akhlaq, however, contested the contentions.
He maintained that it would not be fair to blame anyone for the wrongdoing without ascertaining facts about the emergence of the dead fish stock.
He suggested that contamination could be one of the reasons leading to the incident.
According to him, the industrial units working in Korangi area have been discharging toxic substances into the water channels without proper treatment.
Sometime, water gets extremely toxic for the sea resources and eventually results in destruction of this kind.
Meanwhile, the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) has sent samples of the dead fish for an analysis at the National Institute of Oceanography to ascertain cause of the fish destruction. The analysis report is awaited.—APP
