I went back to freshen this post because I had agreed with it and had not replied when it was first written. There are many people in the fly fishing business who read these posts daily and refrain from advertising because it is against the charter! Instead, when a subscriber asks a question, they will answer it. There are even a few professionals who have answered questions I’ve posed who e-mailed me directly, without naming their fly shops. In other words, it is a long winter for them too, and they like answering questions if they believe they can help. The people who continue to put ads in the newsgroups simply clutter it up and waste yours and my time. Let them know it. By the way, those of you who work for product manufacturers and put baiting questions into the newsgroup to see what kind of responses you’ll get, would be better served by getting out to the streams and shores to find out how we feel about your products. Thank you.

The cash strapped and internationally isolated military government of Pakistan has granted deep-sea fishing rights in Pakistani waters to Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean factory trawlers. The move was greeted by protests from local fishermen, but the government has promised it would maintain “strict vigilance and a tough punitive regime” to safeguard the interests of small fishermen and check incidents of poaching. The decision was taken at a presentation given by chairman of the National Fisheries Development Board, Shafi Niaz, to Pakistan’s army chief and chief executive General Pervez Musharraf at the Chief Executive Secretariat in Islamabad earlier this month. Pakistan’s Minister for Agriculture Khair Mohammad Junejo, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza, Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive General Ghulam Ahmed, ministers of agriculture and fisheries of the states of Balochistan and Sindh, director general Maritime Security Agency and other concerned officials attended the presentation. Niaz told reporters that the permits to foreign factory trawlers require the mandatory installation of a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) monitoring system on board every ship operating within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Pakistan. He said a written undertaking would be obtained from the vessel operators stating that no trans-shipment of fish would take place on the high seas, that under-invoicing of fish catch would be avoided, and that the by-catch would not be dumped into the sea. The by-catch is netted species that are not the target of the fishers and cannot be sold by them. Niaz said if any of these conditions are violated, the vessel’s deepsea trawling license would be cancelled and would not be renewed for three years. The changes proposed in the agreement and approved by the chief executive included doubling of both the royalties and the annual license fee to one million rupees (US$15,810).

Earlier, the equivalent of US$5,000 was charged as royalty from a trawler undertaking a trip of 60 days. This has now been increased to $10,000, while the duration of the deep sea fishing trip has been reduced to 45 days. Penalties for fishing beyond the period of license validity has been increased five-fold to one million rupees. On violation of the specified fishing zone, the penalty has also been increased five-fold to one million rupees. The penalty for fishing without a license has been increased four-fold to two million rupees (US$32,000). Medium sized vessels from 100 to 250 tons would have to pay $2,000 for a trip of 30 days and operate from Korangi Fish Harbor. The meeting also approved a proposal that the National Institute of Oceanography in collaboration with the Marine Fisheries Department, would undertake a new stock assessment survey to ascertain a realistic stock position of the marine resources. TheMonies for it would come from some international donor agencies like the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

The last such survey was done in 1985. The state governments of Balochistan and Sindh have already issued licenses to two deepsea fishing trawlers each, in violation of the federal fisheries law, the meeting was told. Niaz informed the participants that 10 Chinese, 10 South Korean and nine Taiwanese trawlers registered in Pakistan have lost their deep sea fishing licenses because of violations of Pakistan conditions. All three governments registered protests with Islamabad, the meeting was told. The major beneficiaries of deep sea fishing were 31 factory trawlers owned by Chinese and Korean fishing magnates and their Pakistani agents. In a last ditch attempt to stop the reissuance of licenses, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Communities of Sindh and Balochistan sent a letter to the chief executive to protest lifting of the ban, which was imposed in September 2000. They said that lifting of the ban on deepsea fishing trawlers will seriously impact fisherfolk’s right to their livelihood and lead to depletion of fish stocks. Documents published by FAO confirm that 70 percent of the world’s marine fish stocks have now been depleted, and that this situation poses serious nutritional problems for millions of people. President of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, Mohammed Ali Shah told ENS, “There are about 3.5 million vessels around the globe, and only one percent out of them are factory trawlers, which have the potential of wiping out the marine species.” Aly Ercelawn, of the non-governmental organization Creed, said overfishing has devastated Karachi’s fishing waters with the catch declining by an alarming 70 percent.

 ”To make matters worse, foreign deep-sea fishing trawlers have had a free reign and often violate exclusive economic zone regulations and tresspass into the area, which is traditionally meant for indigenous fishermen,” Ercelawn told ENS. Haji Shafi Jamote, the vice-chairman of Fisheries Cooperative Societies, has urged Pakistan’s navy chief to support the demands of fishering community. A local fisherman, Mohammed Abbas, who lives in the coastal community of Ibrahim Haidry, told ENS, “We have seen whales here at our coast, but after the operation by these huge trawler factories, there are no more whales around our coastal areas.” Abbas, who is now 58, appears hopeful about his future and expects to once again see the blissful days of his youth, when fish were abundant, business was brisk, and he never thought about the shortage of fish in the open sea. Fishermen’s leader Mohammed Ali Shah recalls, “It was 1977, when the first trawler factories were allowed to operate in Pakistani coastal territory. And since then the local fishermen have continuously been denied their basic, birthright of fishing.” Shah insists, “For signing any agreement regarding the sea, bonafide fishermen must be briefed before the deal. Because these people can understand better than any one else the merits and demerits of their natural sources of livelihood.”