Fishing Industry In Pakistan

Though fishery/ seafood industry has lacked the attention of our governments, yet the fishing industry of Pakistan plays an important role in the national economy. Pakistan enjoys an enormous coastline spanning 1046 Km, abundance of seafood resources that still remain to be developed. A good number of people along the Sindh &Makran (Baluchistan) coastal areas have fishing as their sole source of livelihood.The sea bears hundreds & thousands of different types of fishes and other sea species which are consumed across the global, however the consumption habits may differ from region to region. When the demand for a particular product/ item exceeds the production/ catch (in our case) give birth to the “exports”. Seafood exports are amongst the

The State is found taking keen interest in developing the fishing industry as with other sectors of the economy. Countries such as USA, Japan, China and some others are not only amongst the biggest seafood importing countries but are also amongst the biggest seafood processing and consuming countries in the world.

In Pakistan the “Fishing industry” is managed by the Fisheries Development Commissioner (FDC) under the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MFAL). Primarily the neglect from the Government & the concerned authorities and the lack of education and skills has wrecked this industry into shambles. Pakistan with so much of marine resources still lacks to print its name amongst the top global players in the seafood industry due to this very

There are many reasons for this problem which include environmental degradation, evolving fishing technologies and its associated increased capacity, overfishing and etc.In the coastal parts of Southeast Asia the fishing stocks have already exhausted to an alarming levelranging from 5 % to 30% of unexploited levels. The significant increase in the shipping vessels has also greatly impacted the local catch. However during the years 1993 to 2007 a number of fishing boats/ trawlers were added by the fishermen of both Sindh & Baluchistan, but were not able to yield the expected return even though the catch included the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), extends to approximately 200 miles deep from the coast. Another major reason for the drop in our fishing catch is the increase of Int’l fishing vessels which the govt. of Pakistan fails to address todate. From the year 2000 to 2003 our catch dropped from 438.000 tons to 402,000 which continued later to a net 29% decline in the last decade (2010) . These int’l fishing trawlers are a menace not just causing the “Over-fishing” phenomenon but also have resulted in the reduced sizes of fish due to which Pakistani fish industry has failed to yield higher prices in the Int’l