KARACHI, Sept 7: Following the recent mass mortality of coastal fish, the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has informed the federal environment protection body that all was not well at the DHA/Clifton beach, and that it should move for remedial measures at the earliest, said sources in the marine circle.

It was learnt that the coastal area of Karachi included some portions where flushing was weak and as such beaching of floating objects occurred including that of dead fish, wastes and spilled oil.

A species of fish named Boi, scientifically known as Mugil Cephalus, moved to the coast for feeding and were trapped in the sediments or in the small plants, which had high concentration of oil contents.

Seeing the tragic Tasman Spirit oil spill in August 2003 as the main cause of combination of oil with suspended sediments in the seawater and consequent contamination of seabed habitats, scientists fear that similar incidents of killing of fish or destruction of other marine lives could occur periodically.

The deaths and sprawling of about 100 tons of fish of a single class on an area of 10 km along the DHA beach opposite to the Kinara Restaurant in the wee hours of Friday was reported by the DHA on Saturday last. The entire lot of fish was collected by vendors and nearby fisheries workers.

Confirming that the fish that spread over the beach after being killed was the result of choking of their gills and breathing problems that had occurred due to oil concentration in the sediment and water along the coast, the Director General of NIO, Dr M.M. Rabbani, told Dawn that efforts were needed to improve the quality of beach sediments.

He informed that he had already talked to the federal EPA on the subject and it was likely that some preventive and precautionary measures would be initiated from Islamabad soon.

To a question, he said that during the biological analysis of fish samples provided by the DHA and collected by the NIO staff, accumulation of oil was observed in the fishes’ bodies, and so chemical analysis of the sample was also needed.

The presence of oil content on the higher side in the sediment samples was also found, he added. However, he said that since the major mortality was localized and limited to just one species, there was no need to get panicky.

Basing on preliminary findings of the NIO team, Mr Rabbani said environmental and other concerned bodies should move for banning the use of the small dead fish in question for poultry feed purposes as well.