KARACHI, April 7: “The bumper catch of tuna over the past 15 to 20 days is like a bounty for us after a long dry spell,” says Mohammad Hanif, a fisherman for three decades, as he looks at the staff loading his catch onto trolleys at the Karachi harbour. “Much of fishermen’s woes could be resolved if we get a similar return at least once a year.”

Hanif’s Al Baba Ishaq boat was among the three launches which had arrived with tonnes of tuna.

One could see large and small tunas, along with a big by-catch, most prominent among them sharks and marlins, piled up separately on the bustling harbour. “It was after six to seven years that we have got a good catch of tuna. We are expecting to earn more than Rs600,000 this time for the 15-tonne catch and each crew member would get at least Rs30,000 for the 15-day trip,” he says, pointing out that the boat captain got the lion’s share.

Abdul Ghafoor, captain of another boat, had not yet calculated the value of the catch he had brought with his 16-member crew after a 40-day trip. “It’s difficult to make an estimate right now, but the catch has been sorted out; there are 70 big and 500 small tunas,” he said, adding that his last catch of tuna had weighed four tonnes.

Noor Khan, a member of Al-Zubairi boat, had returned with a 10-tonne catch and was planning to go to sea again in two days.

“It’s good but not enough to build a house or marry off one’s daughter,” he said. Seconding his opinion, Zer Khan, a mole holder and boat owner, said that currently the market rate of tuna was Rs220 per kg which, he said, was nothing as compared to its international price.

“While tuna is not consumed in Pakistan, it is a high-priced fish in the international market. For instance, a single bluefin weighing 488 pounds was sold for $1.76 million in Tokyo two months ago,” he said.

A major part of tuna catch, fishermen said, was “exported” to Iran and the rest to Sri Lanka in a salted form.

Lack of storage and handling facilities on boats and at the harbour harmed fish quality, fishermen said. This was evident from the conditions prevailing at the harbour that lacked hygienic environment for fish handling. While traders had iced tuna meant for export, they had not made such an arrangement for finger fish (shark) being sold in the local market.

Immediate icing, according to experts, is necessary to maintain fish nutritional value.

According to the data collected by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the average daily catch of tuna at the Karachi fish harbour currently was 18 to 22 tonnes. Tuna landing had increased from 1,150 tonnes in July last year to 6,900 tonnes in March this year.

What fishermen were looking at as a “bounty” was an “unbelievable good price for poor quality fish”, according to experts who said it was not exported but smuggled out to some neighbouring countries.

“What they are getting is too much for a substandard fish. Poor quality fish would hardly fetch $1 in the international market, but it is being sold for $2.2 here, which is astonishing,” says Mohammad Moazzam Khan, former director of the marine fisheries department currently working as a technical adviser on marine resources with the WWF.

Destructive gillnets Tuna, he said, was one of the world’s favourite fish. But the way local fishermen caught it with the help of gillnets instead of long-lining method harmed its quality, he added.

“Fish die when caught with gillnet. In case of tuna, a high level of histamine is produced in the dead fish which causes allergy to humans. Local fishermen returning after a week or so don’t know what they are bringing is something harmful for human body,” he said.

Pakistan, he said, had to abandon the use of gillnets and adopt long-line fishing if the government wanted to export tuna and conserve the country’s important marine species, including sharks, turtles and dolphins, which were caught as a by-catch in large numbers in these destructive nets.

“Very high mortality of cetaceans has led to an international ban on 2.5-kilometre-long gillnets. Pakistan, being a member of the Ocean Tuna Commission, should comply with its regulations,” he said.

A number of tuna fishes were found in Pakistan, but the commercially important ones included long-tail tuna, skipjack tuna and yellow-fin tuna, he said.

Explaining the reasons why tuna was not consumed locally and for having a bumper catch this year, Mr Khan said the freshness and quality of tuna, one of the costliest fish abroad referred to as “chicken of the sea” because of its colour and mild flavour, reduced significantly in the absence of proper handling and icing facilities on fishing vessels.

There was a bumper landing after every eight to 10 years, he said, adding that the last bumper landing was in 2005-06 and before that in 1992-1994.

The entire catch of tuna both from the Karachi fish harbour and Balochistan, according to Mr Moazzam, was smuggled to Iran where it was canned and sold.

“If we adopt long-line method of fishing in which 80 to 90 per cent catch remains alive for a significant period, we could earn a lot of precious foreign exchange as Pakistan is an important north Indian Ocean tuna country,” he said.