KARACHI, Jan 18: After centuries of surviving on fish once found in abundance in coastal waters, many traditional fishing communities face the threat of starvation, for the sea is being stripped bare with intense fishing by foreign trawling fleets for industrial purposes.

Local fishermen complain that successive governments in the country have failed to protect their (fishermen’s) interests. They say the governments neither curbed the activities of foreign trawlers nor took any practical steps to regulate the fisheries sector according to the requirements of local fishermen.

“The tall claims made by every government for upgrading the fisheries sector on modern lines and improving the lifestyle of fishermen do not match the ground realities”, said a member of the fishermen community.

Security agencies responsible for policing Pakistan’s coastline have failed to control the illegal activities of foreign trawlers, known as “factory ships”.

More than 20 medium-size trawling boats and trans-national trawlers are operating in Pakistani waters. Local fishermen in Ibrahim Hayderi, a small fishing village along Sindh’s coast within Karachi’s limits, can spot such foreign ships.

“They move away when the Maritime Security Agency comes, but as soon as the agency officials go away, the trawlers come back. Sometimes they come in so close that they nearly collide with our fishing boats,” a local fisherman adds.

“Since the government has let these foreign ships into our waters, our stocks have depleted and there is nothing left,” another fisherman says, adding that for hundreds of years, his forefathers had fished these waters, but his children were going to end up as beggars.

He says the town’s small wooden fishing boats are no match for the trawlers. “It’s like trying to race a truck with a bicycle,” he says. “In just a few years, these people have come here, destroyed the sea, and stolen our livelihoods.”

Exploiting potential

Industry observers have said that in recent years, Pakistan has steadily been stepping up its efforts to exploit what it terms is the “untapped potential” of its fish stock.

In the ’80s, the government opened its waters to international fishing fleets.

Pakistan’s deep-sea fishing policy 2001 set out a plan to further increase foreign exchange earnings by increasing export of fish and fish products.

The same policy relaxed regulations that restricted trawler activity to a zone 35km-200km from shore after pressure from “friendly” trading partners, such as China and Taiwan. Licensed medium-sized trawlers are now allowed to fish 20km from shore, an area previously reserved exclusively to protect the livelihood of local fisherfolk.

The fisheries sources say the impact trawling and intense fishing has had on their livelihoods and on the marine environment has been devastating.

They estimate that the daily catch has declined by 70 per cent to 80 per cent in the last decade.

An ordinary fisherman can name more than a dozen fish species no longer found in the surrounding waters.

A report of the Pakistani Fisherfolk Forum says more than 50 per cent of the local marine species have been almost wiped out by intensive fishing.

Only 10 per cent of the fish caught by the trawlers’ nets can be sold on the international markets, leading to the other 90 per cent being pumped back into the sea and increasing marine pollution in shallow waters, according to the report.

“Tonnes of fish that could have been used to sustain the livelihoods of local fisherman have been needlessly destroyed through foreign trawling,” says Zubeda Birwani, chairperson of the Pakistan Mahigir Tehrik.

She says Pakistan has yet to undertake an up-to-date fish stock survey, adding that licences to foreign trawling fleets were issued without the government having a clear idea of how many fish are left in Pakistan’s waters. “The exploitation of Pakistan’s marine environment is being done with no regard for the environmental or social impact on communities or resources.”

She calls for putting a ban on foreign trawlers and framing a fishing policy based on the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s code of conduct for responsible fisheries.