Boat owners on Wednesday called their crew back to bring the fishing operations to an abrupt closure following Balochistan government crackdown on Sindh’s vessels trawling within its 12-nautical miles maritime belt. Pakistan’s largest fishing sector is located in Karachi that contributes over 80 percent share to the country’s seafood export is now in deep crisis mainly from a hunt restriction on Sindh-bound boats trawling in Balochistan’s territorial waters, exporters told Business Recorder, seeking an immediate end to the deadlock between the two coastal provinces on the issue. “Sindh boats have ceased hunt operations in Balochistan waters and returning to the Karachi coast after arrests of several vessels by the Balochistan government,” Chairman Pakistan Fisheries Exporters Association (Pakfea), Syed Akhlaq Hussain Abidi told Business Recorder, fearing the country with its continuing deep sea fishing policy will lose its seafood export. He sought an immediate solution to end the Balochistan’s ban on trawling of Sindh boats. He said that the trawling in Balochistan waters has reached the lowest level in years after several Sindh boats were arrested in recent days. The reducing catch landing will scale down the country’s seafood export further. The Sindh governor, the chief minister Sindh and the Federal Government should resolve the country’s exporting sector’s problems and step up their efforts to end the continuing crisis. “No matter what happens, Pakistan needs exports,” Abidi said that the Balochistan fishing sector is not up to the standards to keep up with that of the Sindh with just 10 percent of its share to the seafood export. Gill net and other mode of fishing cannot meet the global demand for the seafood demand on the world market, he added. If the crisis prolongs to catch the second fishing session that starts from February until June, he said that the country will almost lose every chance to improve seafood export that reached over $450 million last fiscal year. “It [seafood export] will further decline if further witness the freefall,” he feared that the federal government should not delay in ending the crisis. Fisheries stakeholders are now mulling on options to fight jointly for solving the issue. Abdul Berr, Fishermen Cooperation Society, said that the stakeholders are united on a single agenda to remove the ban from Sindh’s boats trawling in Balochistan’s waters, saying, “we have recommended four from our side to the committee set up by the Federal Ports and Shipping Ali Zaidi to discuss the matter and seek a solution to it”. He hoped that the proposed committee, which he called a ‘first-step’ to find a solution to the crisis. The committee, he said, will first evolve terms of references (ToRs). The country’s seafood export nosedived by 13 percent or $21.602 million to $144.794 in July-November 2018-19 from $166.396 million in July-November 2017-18. In term of volume, the country’s seafood export also slumped by 7.25 percent or 4801 metric tons to 61,403 metric tons in July-November 2018-19 from 66,204 metric tons in July-November 2017-18. In November 2018, seafood export nosedived by 21 percent or $16.681 million to $35.018 million from $18.337 million in November 2017. Seafood export volume also plunged to 17,009 metric tons in November 2018 from 18,337 metric tons in November 2017, showing a fall of 7.24 percent or 1328 metric tons, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics says.