KARACHI, Aug 16: The oil spill from the grounded tanker — Tasman Spirit — has finally started to have its toll over the economic interest of the country.

The first victim is the Karachi Fish Harbour, where the spill have entered the entire harbour area creating pollution and environmental hazard for the fishermen.

Located at the fag end of the Karachi port towards the West Wharf, the harbour has started giving foul smell of the oil. On the other side, the authorities concerned have issued directives to the fishermen not to lit any fire, which they normally do for cooking their food.

According to the spokesman for the Karachi Fish Harbour, the Marine Fisheries Department has issued these directive after taking stock of the situation in the harbour area.

He said that the harbour authorities had also approached the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and sought their assistance for cleaning the harbour area.

Presently, the Karachi Fish Harbour caters to the needs of around 2,300 boats having an annual catch of around 650,000 tons of fish and shrimp. Through export of sea food, the harbour earns around 150 million dollars annually, most of which goes to the European countries.

Though the Karachi Fish Harbour was already polluted, the oil layer over the sea water is more hazardous and damaging to the ecology and marine life.

Some of the exporters expressed their apprehensions that since the fish and shrimp breeding season was still on, most of the fingerlings (baby fish), which normally stay near the coastline, might have been killed.

“The negative impact of the disaster may not be immediately visible on the marine life, but the next season’s harvesting of fish and shrimps could well disclose the true story and damage,” another exporter said.

Mr Mansoor Abbas, a leading exporter of crabs to the Far East told Dawn that the immediate effect would be on export of crabs, which used to live near coast. He further said that three categories of crabs were being exported from Pakistan to the Far Eastern countries and Japan. The Live Mud Crabs, he said, were mostly exported to Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, while the two other categories Blue Crabs and Three Spotted Crabs were mostly exported to Japan and South Korea.

Responding to a question, he said, “We have immediately stopped the processing of these crabs and our operations will only start after having laboratory test of the marine life.”

Another exporter Mr Akhlaque suggested to the authorities not to use chemicals for containing the oil spill, as the chemicals would settle oil on the sea bed that would directly affect the marine life underneath the water, particularly shrimps. Instead, he said, it should be collected on the surface of water to minimize the damage to the marine life.