KARACHI:Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum is celebrating November 21 World Fisheries Day with theme “Fisher people’s sovereignty on all marine islands” and conduct one-week activities from November 16-21 throughout the province.
Chairman PFF, Muhammad Ali Shah, in a statement said the World Fisheries day is celebrated every year on November 21 throughout the world by the fisher folk communities. From its inception in 1998, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum has been celebrating and observing this event every year while this year it would be celebrated on theme of fisher people’s sovereignty on all marine islands and guard the rights of fisher peoples.
He said around 3.0 million fishermen in Sindh and Balochistan depend on marine fishing, mostly in creeks while the government has decided to develop islands and construct cities that would close paths of fishermen and deprive them of livelihood.
He said the federal government has constituted Pakistan Islands Development Authority (PIDA) to construct the city on twin islands of Bhundar (Bundal) and Dingi without any consultation with the Sindh government, as the area falls under the provincial jurisdiction.
“Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum is protesting against such decision and is celebrating this World Fisheries Day by protesting the construction of cities over islands, as they are places for fishing and mangrove forests,” he said. “Federal government’s such action is not only against the Constitution of Pakistan but it is also against international conventions and agreements, which provide social, economic and cultural sovereignty to the indigenous people.”
He said Pakistan has a coastal belt of over 1,050 kilometers and there are 300 small and big islands located in Sindh coast only that would be taken into control by the federal government. Along with Dingi and Bundal, these islands are home to thousands of hectares of mangrove forests, which are nurseries of fish and shrimps while these creeks from Karachi to Thatta are fishing grounds for the fishermen.
Shah said a recent United Nations study reported that more than two-thirds of the world’s fisheries have been overfished or are fully harvested and more than one third are in a state of decline because of factors such as the loss of essential fish habitats, pollution, and global warming. The fishermen have been suffering series of problems. Ghastly increasing marine pollution, unconventional and untraditional fishing practices including destructive nets and deep-sea trawlers have not only over fished and ruined the ecosystem but have been drastically affecting livelihood of fishermen.
The World Fisheries Day helps in highlighting the critical importance to human lives, of water and the lives it sustains, both in and out of water. Besides, overfishing and mechanization has also resulted in a crisis – fish stocks are being depleted through ‘deep sea factory ship’ vessels, bottom trawling, and other means of unsustainable fishing methods, he said. “Unless we address these issues collectively, the crisis will deepen.”
He said the World Fisheries Day helps to highlight these problems, and moves towards finding solutions to the increasingly inter-connected problems we are facing, and in the longer term, to sustainable means of maintaining fish stocks.
Narrating about one-week activities, he said the World Fisheries Day would be inaugurated on November 16 in all districts, corner meetings and various programs will be held in all districts from November 17 to November 20, all districts will hold rallies on November 19 while central rally would be held in Karachi from Regal Chowk to Press Club on November 21.