This story focuses on the changing wintering pattern, it’s intensity and impacts on marine life, specially fish in Pakistan’s coastal area. Local fishermen, comparing the present situation to the past, say that now neither winter is coming normally, nor is the normalcy in sea. Earlier, this season was limited for 40 days, pushing fishermen to stay idle at home. But now the winter enters with full intensity and ends the similar way, affecting fishermen for more than two months, as fish moves to coral reef.

Fishermen also link the increasing boat incidents in the open waters to the unusual high tides, grabbing fishing vessels down without obvious reasons. Ending year 2012 experienced horrible boat incidents, in which more than a dozen people died in Sindh and Balochistan provincial coastlines. Fishermen Cooperative Society and other organizations working on the welfare and development of the fisher community do not have exact data of boat incidents and deaths of crews, while they were busy in their livelihood activities in the open sea.

Fishermen do not take risk to move their boats to the open seas during the winter and facing hardships, because they depend on fishing for their livelihoods.

Similar is the status of coral reef, the natural beauty, because of unchecked over fishing, issuing licenses to deep sea trawlers. Irony is that there is no data of these happenings, coral reef, fish stocks and the changing situation.

These all happenings contribute to put the communities more vulnerable to face impacts of changing weather, sea storms and loss of livelihoods.

Read the full story.