Daily Times

KARACHI: Sindh Fisheries Department has finally moved to save the threatened sharks, vulnerable to extinction in the near future, and the world famous Tenualosa illsha, which is Palla Fish, Daily Times has learnt.

The Sindh Fisheries Department has made amendments in the first schedule of the Sindh Fisheries Ordinance, 1980, and imposed a complete ban on catching, selling, trade of endangered sharks and Tenaulosa illsha, Palla Fish below 25 cm.

Moreover, the fisheries department has also imposed ban on Tenualosa illsha, Palla Fish below 25 cm, all varieties of freshwater prawn, and all varieties of berried crabs, all varieties of lobster and sawfish family pristidae.

When contacted, Sindh Marine Fisheries Director Rukhsana told Daily Times that sharks species were increasingly becoming threatened because of commercial and recreational fishing pressure, the impact of non-shark fisheries on the seabed and shark prey species, and other habitat alterations such as damage and loss from coastal development and marine pollution.

“The major decline in shark stocks have been recorded over the past few decades, some species have declined over 90 percent. Sharks generally reach sexual maturity only after many years and produce few offspring in comparison to other fish species”, she said.

She said the conservationists estimate that up to 100 million sharks are killed by commercial and recreational fishing every year.

Sharks are often killed for shark fin soup, which some Asian countries regard as a status symbol. The fishermen capture live sharks, fin them, and dump the finless animal back into the water to die from suffocation or predators, she added.

According to Fisheries Director Rukhsana, in a milestone decision in 2013, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) prohibited international trade in the fins of the scalloped hammerhead and four other sharks.

She said the CITES rejected the proposals from the United States and Palau that would have required countries to strictly regulate trade in several species of hammerhead, oceanic whitetip and dogfish sharks.

China, by the world’s largest shark consumer, and Japan, which battles all the attempts to extend the Convention’s protections to marine species, led the opposition, she added.

Fisheries Director Rukhsana said Pakistan has also become the signatory of the CITES that led the Sindh Fisheries Department to impose a complete ban on whale sharks, silky sharks, oceanic white tip sharks, hammerhead sharks and Mobula rays throughout the year to save the species.