KARACHI, Nov 1: Deep-sea fishing could cater to the future food requirements of the nation. However, it should only be allowed to operate under transparent rules and regulations, safeguarding the interests of the local fishermen.

This was stated by speakers at seminar on “pros and cons of deep sea fishing”, organized by Pakistan Press Foundation in Karachi, on Thursday.

Shahid Mukhtar, an expert on fisheries, said owing to increasing population in the country, a huge quantity of food would be required and this could only be met by exploiting more seafood.

He said in order to meet the future food requirements, Pakistan would need to make policies considering crucial factors, such as economical, maritime, political and most important of all technological.

He called for an effective check on violations by deep-sea trawlers. He said there was no reliable data on fishing and relevant affairs. This was creating problems and all analysis was being made on just speculation. Due to political vacuum in the country, no effective fishing policy had been made, so far, he said.

“We need high technology to exploit our share from the sea. More than 15 million tons of mesopelagic kind of fish is present in our territorial waters. There is need to use modern fishing equipment” he added.

He feared if deep-sea fishing is not continued, ground will open for other nations to benefit from this and deprive Pakistan of its due share. “We should plan for next 20 to 50 years”, he observed.

Haji Shafi Jamote, Vice Chairman, Fishermen Cooperation Society, termed the continuation of deep-sea fishing as a “colossal loss” to poor fishermen of the country. In countries where deep-sea fishing continues, fish catch is declining sharply, he stated.

By continuing deep-sea fishing in Pakistan, unemployment would increase which would lead to a social unrest, he maintained. He alleged that the deep sea trawlers have depleted various kinds of fish. He warned if they are allowed to continue, after a few years there would be no fish in the Arabian Sea.

Haji Shafi Jamote said that such a deep-sea policy had been promulgated which was not national in character because there was no representation of fishermen of Sindh and Balochistan in the Fishing Board. All policies are being made by those who do no represent fishermen, he contended.

Dr. Ghulam Muhammad Memon, DG, Livestock and Fisheries, said that the basic purpose of joint ventures between Pakistani and foreign parties was to acquire technology, train local manpower and to obtain more reliable data. But the objectives have not been achieved in letter and spirit as the joint venture proved in essence only for licenses to foreign trawlers to fish in our waters without any transfer of technology or without boosting the country’s exports. It also did not benefit the fishermen.

He said the main thrust of new fishing policy was socio-economic uplift of small-scale fishermen by providing them better prices for their catch, equipping boats with modern gadgets, upgrading skills through training in modern fishing techniques and by improved marketing system so that they may have fishing resources for an area between 12 and 35 nautical miles now reserved as buffer zone as well as exploitation fields for them.

He said in zone-II fishing would be allowed under license form the ministry of food and agriculture. Based on maximum sustainable yield level of various fish stocks, a maximum of 50 Tuna long liners and 20 trawlers would be allowed for fishing.

He noted that deep-sea trawlers since 1996 also started poaching in the territorial waters and since then 521 violations had been reported with a fine of about Rs 100 million. Their contribution in export is very nominal as in 2000-2001 out of a total export of US$145.68 million, their contribution was only US$7.94 million which is 6.675 per cent of total export.

He was of the view that if foreign deep trawlers owners want to operate in Pakistani territorial waters, they should invest in Pakistan by installing processing and packing plants and must bring catch at Karachi harbour.

S.Q. Raza, Chairman, Marine Fisheries Department, said deep-sea was line or place at sea beyond which operations and activities of local fishing fleets are not effective due to their size, engine HP and fishing techniques used; thereby leaving un-tapped resources. To harvest these untapped resources, modern vessels are employed, he added.

He said fishing sector provides employment to some 379,000 fishermen directly in the country. In addition, another 400,000 people are employed in ancillary industries. It contributes about 0.1 per cent to the country’s GDP, amounting to about 4 per cent of overall agriculture sector.

About deep-sea fishing, he said it was started in 1982 but abolished in 1986. Then came the policy of 1989 allowing exploitation of fisheries resources by Pakistani flag vessels, which is still operative. Since then a set of policies have been experimented to exploit fish resources of Exclusive Economic Zone but without achieving the desired objectives of getting deep-sea fishing technology transferred to Pakistan to develop is own deep-sea fishing fleet.

He said it had to be understood that deep-sea fishing is capital intensive business and Pakistan’s deep-sea fishery resources have not yet attracted local private entrepreneurs to establish their fishing fleet.

Due to various reasons and one major concern was poaching, the government put ban on deep sea fishing in September 2000. A new and revised policy of 1995 as amended in 2001 was announced in August 2001.

A survey revealed that small scale fishermen have not, so far, been successful as desired due to lack of navigational aids, fish finding equipment, lack of training, skill in modern fishing technology, post- harvest losses due to lack of refrigeration facilities, etc.

He said efforts are under way to install Global Positioning System on every vessel which would enable authorities to properly monitor the movement of trawlers in deep-sea. About 66 applications have been received to obtain license of deep-sea fishing.

Kamran Hameed, President, Deep-Sea Trawler Operators Association, favoured deep-sea operation and said due to lack of modern facilities a large quantity of seafood is wasted whereas more then 90 per cent is lost in natural decay due to lack of preservation capability. In Pakistani water, deep-sea fishing meant operation of steel hulled stern trawler which operated in areas where wooden boats were technically not capable of operating.

He argued that the closure of deep-sea fishing only helped Iran and India.—PPI