According to a World Wide Fund for Nature report, 90 percent of the fish eaten in the nation is polluted, putrid, and unfit for human consumption (WWF).
The evaluation was presented during a seminar titled “Blue Economy: An Avenue for Development in Pakistan” hosted at the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.
Khan maintained that a significant portion of the fish sold in stores and on street vendors’ carts was unfit for human consumption. The seminar’s presenters discussed a range of topics, including Pakistan’s blue economy.
Fish are a particularly fragile protein source and putrefy extremely fast if not immediately cooled or frozen, according to Khan.”Fish are often kept at room temperature, though they may sometimes be kept at temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius.
Vendors sprinkle water on the fish to keep them looking fresh and prevent decomposition. But people continue to buy them despite the fact that they are already unfit for ingestion, which causes illness. To keep fish from spoiling, he advised storing it between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius.
The WWF delegate said that only 10% of Pakistan’s produce was exported, and the remainder was deteriorated or harmed because most boats lacked adequate deep freezers and other storage options for the catch.
He said that although the volume of seafood exports is rising, we are still falling short of our ambitious goals due to a variety of issues, such as inadequate processing facilities and lax quality controls.
Khan bemoaned the fact that Pakistan’s fisheries industry was still totally unregulated and that the size of the fleet had grown uncontrollably much.
According to a survey conducted in 2016, the total fleet size consisted of 11,500 vessels, but it was now projected to have exceeded 20,000.
