With a view to resolving a longstanding dispute between fishermen and seafood exporters over the annual fishing ban, Karachi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA) has asked all the stakeholders to present proposals to reach a consensus on the restriction, sources said on Saturday.
Sources told Business Recorder that the KFHA has called an important meeting of all the stakeholders of the fisheries sector to evolve a unanimous plan to resolve a dispute that arises every year between fishermen and seafood exporters. "Officials of Marine Fisheries Department, KFHA, seafood exporters, boat owners and fishermen will have a meeting on April 11 to come up with the solution to resolve this dispute," fisheries officials confirmed.
Fishermen have been demanding of the government to abrogate the 29 years old ordinance of banning fishing for two months (June-July) every year even on the deep seas, which is causing losses of millions of rupees to them. Whereas the seafood exporters are of the view that the June-July period is the breeding season for shrimp and some fish species and fishing during these months destroys the marine life. Marine Fisheries Department also cites a study which supports the exporters' views. However, fishermen believe that fish and shrimp breeding continues all the year and is not bound to a specific period.
The exporters every year boycott purchasing of fish and shrimp during these two months. Almost four years ago, the Sindh government started imposing ban only in July. Officials said that the government wanted to solve the issue on priority basis and before June-July to come up with a unanimous solution to the issue.
It may be mentioned here that the fishermen call the fishing ban ordinance a "black law", saying that its implementation was only for poor fishermen of tiny islands of Keamari whose primary source of income is fishing. They say that there should be a uniform law to ban fishing during this period for Balochistan and Sindh not only for fishermen of Karachi harbour.
"A fisherman bears at least Rs 60,000 loss while a boat owner suffers Rs 1500,000 every year because of the ban," they said. They said that the ordinance was flawed therefore could not produce better results despite its imposition on Karachi fishermen since 1982. They showed deep resentment over the annual fishing ban.
The local fishermen have never been identified with areas where breeding of sea animals during this period takes place, whereas they go for fishing into the deep sea where the law still fails to locate the breeding zone, they said. The ban is imposed to ensure safe breeding of sea animals in creeks and mangroves during June-July but the fishermen of Ibrahim Hyderi and Korangi Fish Harbour continue to sweep the seabed also during this period because the law does not circumscribe these parts, which is discrimination, the fishermen said.
They said that there were thousands of fishermen and people associated with fisheries sector, who suffer huge financial losses every year, while the government never launched welfare projects for them They demanded of the government to formulate a policy for the preservation of sea animals before banning fishing even on the deep sea, while the subsequent law of the policy should be implemented strictly in all areas of the country.