July 28, 2008	Monday	Rajab 24, 1429

KARACHI, July 27: The Karachi-based fisherman community has welcomed the government’s fishing policy expressed its apprehensions about the implementation of the laws aimed at checking the illegal practices that lead to depletion of marine resources.

“The situation is not expected to improve unless the patterns of fisheries development are changed and effective steps are taken to keep a strict check on over-fishing,” community leaders told this reporter during a recent survey.

Accompanied by a large number of fishermen — out of work these days due to a seasonal ban on fishing —, the community leaders said that new government’s policy was focused on a sustainable growth and a tangible increase in the exports of seafood products, besides improving the lot of local fishermen for which basic amenities for fishermen villages had been envisaged. However, they pointed out that such goals could not be achieved due to the non-implementation of the laws against overfishing and other illegal practices.

According to the official estimates, fisheries industry earns around $1.2 billion a year of which $200 million comes from exports. Around 500,000 to 600,000 people are estimated to rely directly or indirectly on the fishing industry for their livelihood.

The government has recently taken certain initiatives to modernise and upgrade the fisheries sector in Sindh and Balochistan while plans are afoot to further develop the seafood industry through federal and provincial funding.

This has been in response to the demands from stakeholders of the fisheries sector who cite insufficient funding as one of the major factors responsible for the problem of seafood quality. The problem has ultimately resulted in the imposition of a European Union ban on seafood imports from Pakistan.

The fishermen were of the view that the provincial authorities concerned had so far failed to check overfishing, and pointed out that widespread use of fine nets was behind the menace. They said that the catch through fine nets included juvenile fish, crabs and lobsters, as well as eggs and the unbridled practice led to depletion of priced seafood. Much of the catch was meant for preparing fishmeal, major buyers of which were poultry farmers, they added.

“This problem is now emerging in Balochistan’s coastal waters where Sindh fishermen have now been allowed to fish,” they said.

The survey shows that about 60 per cent of the country’s catch is used as fishmeal (poultry feed) by local poultry farmers.

Licence system

The Sindh government’s decision to abolish the licence system and the contract system in fisheries sector has adversely affected the fisherman community as feudal lords and other influential figures have started hogging 1,209 sweet water resources, including canals and lakes, in their respective areas in Sindh, PPI adds.

The licence system had empowered fishermen to operate in their allotted limits but they are now at the mercy of the landlords and influential figures who have been extending their authority to the waterways passing through their lands. Chairman of the Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Mallah Tanzeem Mohammad Arab Mallah, talking to the news agency here on Sunday, said that some feudal lords and the “mafia” operating in the fisheries sector were submitting fake lists of fishermen to get the government’s for fishing.

He urged the government to take such decisions only after holding consultations with the representatives of fishermen, more than five million according to an estimate.

“Abolition of the licence system is against the interests of the fishermen and the decision has caused frustration among them,” he observed, urging the government to take action against those hogging the state’s waterways to safeguard the livelihood of fishermen.

The Sindh Assembly had adopted a bill on the licence system in 1976 but the law could not be implemented properly he said.

He suggested that the Pakistan People’s Party government should now issue cards, to be regarded as fishing licence, to genuine fishermen.

He also demanded constitution of a fisheries board, where fishermen should be given representation. He said that laws be enacted to safeguard the rights of local fishermen in the pursuance of the Supreme Court’s 1998 ruling on the issue.—PPI