20000218

B'stan fishermen

demand facilities for

seafood export

LAILA A ALI

QUETTA: There has been deplorable exploitation of Balochistan seafood resources by foreign and domestic trawlers, depriving poor provincial fisherman of their own means for earning and living.

A spokesman for Balochistan Fishermen Association said here on Thursday that these trawlers equipped with most modern means of fishing, storing and marketing were very much active with impunity in Balochistan waters.

He said they are engaged in excessive exploitation of resources of Balochistan fish, lobsters and prawns, robbing provincial fishermen of their livelihood.

He feared that if timely action was not taken, the total fish potential of 300,000 tonnes would be exhausted in Balochistan waters.

According to a conservative estimate, the provincial annual fish output was 196,000 tonnes, he said and added that out of this total fish catch, about 80,000 tonnes were taken away by Sindh. The spokesman, however, maintained that his fishermen Association could not give an accurate account of fish, lobsters and prawns catch by foreign and domestic trawlers illegally operating in Balochistan waters with the connivance of the agencies responsible to check and control exploitation and illegal of provincial seafood.

The spokesman said that the Fishermen Association wants to compete against domestic and foreign trawlers with modern fish catching boats. He said Green Boat Scheme on the pattern of green tractor/tubewells should be introduced in Makran division for the benefit of fishermen. The fishermen should be given short and long-term credits by the banking sector to modernise and mechanise their fishing methods. Fish, prawns and lobsters should be exported direct from Pasni and Gwadar to the Gulf states. There should be cold storage facilities at Pasni, Gwadar Ormara, Jiwani and Gaddani for marketing of seafood to foreign and domestic markets. The fish training Centre was already sanctioned with Japanese assistance by the government. It should be operational to impart training to the fishermen in modern lives of fishing, processing, preserving, canning and marketing to foreign and domestic markets. He demanded that the Export Promotion Bureau should set up its offices at Pasni and Gwadar to accelerate Balochistan seafood export to foreign markets.

To a question the spokesman said for the last 52 years Balochistan fishermen have been fed up with false promises by every successive government. He added that Balochistan Fishermen Association has pinned high hopes on Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf for better change in the lifestyle and standard of living of fishermen.

He maintained that the only way to improve and better the lot of fishermen and boost Balochistan seafood export is to set up export-oriented fishery sector downstream industries plants for cold storage, fish processing, fish packing, fish canning, lobsters and crab meat cooking and packing, prawn and shrimp freezing packing at Pasni, Gwadar, Ormara, Jiwani, Gaddani and other suitable sites along Makran Coast.