KARACHI, Aug 16: The unending oil slippage from broken Greece ship — Tasman Spirit — lying aground near Karachi coast for the last three weeks is now threatening Pakistan’s $130 million plus (Rs7.85 billion) annual seafood export trade, and a meeting of all the federal agencies concerned is being convened early next week at the Export Promotion Bureau to take stock of the situation.

“I have called for an immediate meeting of the Marine Fisheries, the Karachi Port Trust, the Maritime Security and all other agencies concerned to consider salvage measures,” State Minister and EPB Chairman Tariq Ikram told Dawn correspondent at his office on Saturday.

“If necessary, we may demand compensation from the ship’s insurance company for the export loss Pakistan is likely to suffer because of oil slick,” he added. He has also decided to give the EPB a proactive role after more than three weeks of the mishap that occurred on July 27.

The KPT is reported to have contacted the Maritime Fisheries on August 12, 15 days after the ship went aground. Instructions were then issued to fishing boats and fishermen to stay away from the stuck-up ship that was about to split.

The oil is reported to have been imported by a government-owned refinery, in a ship chartered by the Pakistan Shipping Company and its insurance cover is obviously being provided by the public sector National Insurance Corporation. All the people concerned, the federal communications minister and the communications secretary, the oil and gas minister and secretary and the KPT chairman are mysteriously quite on the amount of loss suffered from this mishap, and the losses to be incurred ahead because of oil slick that would settle down on sea bed after aerial spray.

Pakistan’s seafood industry is abuzz with many questions on this recent ship mishap. But the mother of all questions is “Why there should always be a Naval Admiral to head the Karachi Port Trust? What has a Naval officer or for that matter an Army Brigadier or Major to do with the port management?

Tariq Ikram wants to take measures that should restore confidence of the foreign buyers of Pakistani seafood, who are now making frantic calls to their business partners.

Fish exporters confirm that they are receiving frantic calls from their foreign buyers, particularly from Europe. “They want to know if oil slick has damaged marine life,” an exporter said. But exporters look confused and offer conflicting answers when asked to quantify the extent of damage their industry would suffer from the oil slippage.

“There is no damage at all,” Mian Waheed Asghar, said to be fourth biggest seafood exporter, told this correspondent. He said oil slick had been pushed towards coastal area by the wind that had come as a blessing.

According to Mian Waheed, the fishing ground had remained unaffected and there was no health hazards in fish consumption.

Marine Fisheries director general Syed Qamar Raza, also from Pakistan Navy, is convinced that oil slick has brought no damage to marine life. “Luckily there has been strong on-shore winds that pushed oil slick towards coast,” he said. The oil layer, he said, was spread over 1.5 miles diameter around the grounded ship.

Mr Qamar claimed that there was now normal fish landing at the Karachi Fish Harbour. He said 416 tons of fish and shrimp landed at the fish harbour on August 12, 470 tons on August 13 and 191 tons on August 14. “There is absolutely no threat to marine life,” he claimed.

“The oil slick affected area is small and not a fishing ground as such,” Faisal Iftikhar, vice-chairman of the Pakistan Seafood Exporters Association, said. He, however, conceded that oil slick had literally wiped out the small fish that were abound in shallow waters. “Fish-meal is gone,” he said.

“Karachi seaport is the dirtiest and the most polluted in the world,” a seafood exporter said, who pointed out that for more than two decades Karachi sea had been a dumping pit for the city’s sewerage, industrial effluent and discharge from the ships. “Let this oil spill be the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back” is a cynic remark.

Exporters say that real fishing ground spread over mid seas has so far been spared of this mishap. Many of them are convinced that fish harvesting will continue as a normal routine activity in days to come.

There is, however, a lurking fear that a change in wind direction can push oil slick from the coastal side to mid seas where it can prove hazardous to marine life. “It is a far fetched idea as southwards wind blows in Pakistan during winter in December”, the DG Marine Fisheries said. The DG will give a full account of the loss caused by oil slippage on marine life to the federal food minister on Sunday.