Fishmeal exporters last week voiced concern about the fishing of undersized species, saying they had filed a court petition against the practice. The Fishmeal Exporters Group denied exporting fish caught with illegal sized nets, which it claimed were \'illegal and unethical\'.

The Group stated that not enough was being done to curb illegal fishing and urged the authorities to help put a stop to it and to ban fishing during the breeding season in June July and August. They accused seafood exporters of continuing to sell fish and shrimp caught with banned, illegal nets, and the large fishing boats of catching and selling trash fish to foreign companies to make fishcake.

The Marine Fisheries Department and Sindh Fisheries Department pay regular visits to fishmeal exporters, and only seven companies are currently using high quality raw material that is approved by the competent authorities. A further 125 companies process fishmeal using the sun drying method in Sindh and Balochistan, which is sold for making chickenfeed.

Source: Business Recorder, Pakistan, July 05, 2015. The full article can be found here.