The days are remembered when seafood was exported to the US, Japan, South Korea, Europe, etc where the prices fetched were much higher than where the seafood is being exported at this time.

Each and every factor leads to the dent in the economy of the country where the urge to earn foreign exchange continues. The leaders are frequently travelling seeking a few million or billion USD as loan to keep up with the need of meeting the inevitable financial demands but least attention is being given to overcome this dilemma and crisis.

Why then a country blessed by the Creator of every means available begs. The saying goes, “The intelligent learn from other’s mistakes while the fools learn from their own”, can the policymakers be worse than the fools to repeatedly commit the same mistakes rendering the country to fall in a deep financial quagmire?

In the need for short-term benefits, the hen that laid the golden eggs has been eaten and now without any golden eggs, the only option left, leads to begging for just enough to keep the country going, it’s so pathetic.

Seafood, once a major source of foreign exchange earnings, can be revived to its former prominence, provided corruption is curtailed to an extent as it may be impossible to curtail it one hundred per cent. There is still a short time left to protect coastal fish and marine life to benefit the fisherfolk and the country’s financial wealth to generate foreign exchange earnings. It is imperative to focus on these high-impact actions before it is too late and the matter reaches a point of no return:

Individual actions

1-Restrict the use of fermented sardines/small fish for poultry feed.

2-Choose sustainable seafood: Use guides like Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch to avoid overfished species.

3-Reduce chemical runoff: Use non-toxic garden products and minimise fertilisers; excess nutrients cause “dead zones” in coastal waters.

4-Eliminate plastic: Single-use plastics entangle marine life and degrade into harmful microplastics.

5-Fish responsibly: Adhere to local size and bag limits to ensure juvenile fish reach breeding age.

Community & policy efforts

1-Protect key habitats: Advocate for the preservation of mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs, which serve as vital nurseries for 25% of all marine life.

2-Support marine protected areas (MPAs): These “underwater parks” allow fish populations to recover and spill over into fishing zones with full participation of the local fisherfolks.

3-Participate in cleanups: Removing debris from beaches prevents waste from entering the food chain.

4-Restrict fishing by trawlers within 12 nautical miles of the coast with the participation of the local fisherfolk by legally empowering them.

5-Restrict the use of illegal nets that should be punishable by serious consequences.

6-For the provincial governments to empower the Pakistan Marine Security Agency and the Coast Guard to ensure compliance with fishing policies as the governments of Sindh and Balochistan seemed to have miserably failed in this matter.

Due to illegal and overfishing by trawlers within the 12 nautical mile zone, the fisherfolk and their children are dying of hunger and are being burdened by heavy loans from loan sharks that they may never be able to pay throughout their lifetime. Small boats take their diesel and rations on credit and spend days in the ocean under the open sky. They return with hardly enough fish to sell and pay back the loans against expenses incurred and this cycle burdens them more and more reaching a point, where it becomes impossible for them to cater for their basic expenses.

Over and above that the trawlers are illegally fishing within the restricted 12 nautical mile range, they are now using search lights at night to lure the small fish from the bottom and around sweeping them by using illegal fishing nets. The coastal belt can be seen lit with lights at night but the government functionaries fail to take any action and look the other way.

Furthermore, the fish wealth has depleted and is further depleting while reducing the export of good quality/species to earn the much-needed foreign exchange for the country. Furthermore, due to the dilapidated hygienic conditions, many high-paying countries have banned import of seafood from Pakistan.

This article is written to awaken all those at the helm of affairs that this is not a small issue and warrants immediate action and cognizance to save the fish wealth in the best interest of the country. Improving the fish wealth can be a step towards breaking the beggar’s bowl.

The writer is an enthusiast angler and independent director on the board of Saindak Metals, Ministry of Energy