'Grossly expensive diesel may not allow for any more fishing'.

KARACHI -- 'June and July are the months when there is a ban on fishing, but despite the reduction in this ban by a month, no one here is going out to sea to catch fish at the moment due to the extraordinarily high cost of fuel,' said former director general of the Marine Fisheries Department, Moazzam Khan, who also happens to be one of the leading fisheries scientists of the country.

He was speaking at a multi-stakeholder dialogue and report launch on the 'Plight of fisherfolk and workers in the seafood sector in South Asia' organised by the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), Pakistan Kisan Rabita Committee (PKRC), Labour Education Foundation (LEF) and South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) at a local hotel here on Wednesday.

He said that fisherfolk had been facing all kinds of issues including poverty that had resulted in a 40 to 50 per cent reduction in fishing here. 'The fuel issue could have been helped somewhat if we had turned to fish farming but we don't do it for reasons unknown,' he added.

'Bangladesh has been doing it but we are not in the mood to do it. We have the space, we have the expertise but we are not in the mood,' he said sarcastically.

Use of banned nets affects 80pc production of local fish

'Right now we are over exploiting our fish resources by increasing our fleet of fishing boats as the federal government awards boat engines and licences one after the other while the number of boats we have in reality ought to be reduced by half. Recently, there has been a 700 per cent increase of boats in Balochistan, which is resulting in over-fishing there. In foreign countries, when you make a new boat, you surrender the licence of an old boat, but out here we talk of increasing potential in fishing even though you don't have the fish,' he said.

'Our fish is exported to China and to Vietnam, too. This is the same thing since from Vietnam it is smuggled to China. It is also exported to Malaysia, Thailand and Gulf countries. Europe doesn't want our fish. All this talk about Europe lifting the import ban is not true. For that matter America also doesn't want our fish. And Pakistan's own per capita consumption of fish is the lowest in the world thanks to certain myths that fish carries hot effects for the human body or it is not advisable to have fish in months which have an 'R' in their names, etc,' he said.

Karamat Ali of Piler said that Pakistan, Sri Lanka...