Daily Times

KARACHI: During the first day of a two-day workshop that started on Monday, speakers emphasised the need to take concerted efforts for addressing illegal trade in various shark species in Pakistan.

The workshop has been organised by the Worldwide Fund for Nature-Pakistan.

The speakers pointed out that sharks formed an important part of the marine ecosystem and the recent decline in shark catches indicated an alarming trend which needed to be addressed. The speakers also said that a National Plan of Action (NPOA) should be developed to provide a viable mechanism for conservation of sharks in the country.

Dr. Babar Khan, the director for Wildlife at WWF-Pakistan, said that there was an urgent need to collect data on population of sharks in Pakistani waters. He recommended that the stakeholders must learn from the experiences of Indian Ocean countries. He said that creating awareness among fishing communities was essential for conservation of sharks. He informed the gathering that since Pakistan was a signatory of CITES, therefore, there was a need to control export of shark products especially a few shark species that were included in Appendix-II of CITES such as hammerhead sharks, manta rays, oceanic whitetip shark, whale shark and saw fishes. “There is a need to develop a system that these species are not caught and exported from Pakistan.”

Muhammad Moazzam Khan, a technical adviser on marine fisheries at WWF-Pakistan, shared that data collection mechanism for sharks needed to be implemented at all landing sites in Sindh and Balochistan which could help assess the status of species. He said there were around 74 landing sites in both provinces. He was of the view that it was the mandate of provincial governments to keep record of all fishes including sharks at each landing site. Furthermore, he also said that traditional knowledge about marine life was on the verge of becoming extinct, and efforts were needed to conserve it for use in conservation and management of fisheries resources. He emphasised the need for establishing a database on sharks and strengthening identification of reliable data. Regarding shark trade in Pakistan, he commented that fins of the species were exported to the countries like Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan where these were in high demand. He also said that meat of shark was sold to local vendors who sold it as fried fish products, while its skin was dried and used in poultry feed.

Hamera Aisha, the wildlife manager at WWF-Pakistan, shared that illegal wildlife trade had serious impact on ecosystem stability and it was considered the second greatest threat to wildlife after habitat destruction. She said, “we need to find out innovative ways to work together towards curbing illegal wildlife trade in Pakistan. In order to curb wildlife trafficking in Pakistan, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with Pakistan Customs. We have initiated digital awareness raising campaign to discourage wildlife trade of various endangered species including sharks in Pakistan.”

While, Ahmed Nadeem, the deputy director of Balochistan Fisheries Department, said that traditional fishermen were well aware of sharks and its allied species’role in the marine ecosystem. He was of the view that whale sharks have been a non-targeted species. He also shared that rostrum of sawfish had a religious value attached to it as earlier it was found at shrines across the province to attract good fortune. “Traditional fishermen are ready to sacrifice their costly nets for releasing endangered species,” he added.

Dr. Sumera Farooq, an assistant professor at Karachi University’s Department of Zoology, shared that a number of shark species were found in abundant numbers in coastal and off-shore waters of Pakistan. She further said that they were a source of protein. She also stressed that loss of sharks would result in substantial changes to the ecosystem that would affect other organisms. “Incidental catch of sharks is increasing globally while target fisheries is very less,” she added.

Rukhsana Asghar Chaudhry, Director Fisheries Marine, Government of Sindh; Namra Riaz from Pakistan Customs; Dr. M. Shoaib Kiani and other officials from relevant department spoke on the occasion.

Published in Daily Times, March 27^th 2018.