Bowmouth guitarfish caught and released by fishermen

KARACHI:

Local fishermen from Karachi rescued an endangered bowmouth guitarfish on Tuesday in the offshore waters of Balochistan.

Fisherman Muhammad Iqrar saw a 2.3-metre-long bowmouth guitarfish was caught in the gill net while operating off Ras Zarrien near Pasni about 45 kilometres in the offshore waters. The depth of the sea was about 30 metres.

The fishing operation was stopped and Iqrar, along with his fellow fishermen, tried to release the animal back into the sea. After a struggle of about 25 minutes, they were able to haul the guitarfish on board and then release it successfully into the water.

Iqrar, who estimated the price of the rare fish to be about Rs2,000 in the local market, preferred to release it instead of selling it. He said that the fishermen on his boat were aware of the worth of the fish.

Iqrar is among 50 fishermen who have been trained by the World Wide Fund for Nature — Pakistan (WWF-P) on the release of rare and endangered species. Bowmouth guitarfish are considered to be a good omen for the fisheries of Pakistan as these large guitarfish previously used to be killed for their meat, the extraction of their liver oil and their valuable fins.

Rab Nawaz, the senior director of biodiversity at WWF-P, appreciated the efforts of the fishermen in releasing the rare guitarfish. He pointed out that, although guitarfish are not legally protected in Pakistan, the fishing community considers them an important marine animal that should not be killed for mere extraction of liver oil and its fins.

Nawaz said that WWF-P is working in close collaboration with fisheries and wildlife departments of Sindh and Balochistan to include guitarfish in the list of protected species. He stressed that the government should devise a policy to reduce gill net fisheries in Pakistan, which are known for entanglement of by-catch, especially cetaceans and turtles.

According to Muhammad Moazzam Khan, the technical adviser on marine fisheries of WWF-P, the bowmouth guitarfish is a vulnerable species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List and that its population has been seriously reduced in the area of its distribution.

Locally known as 'bhuth-khair' in Sindhi and 'koh-bayyadri' in Balochi, this species used to be regularly exploited and now, because of overfishing and its slow reproduction rate, its population has declined in Pakistan, said Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2015.