6. Evaluation of the resource potentials of Pakistan

The biomass estimates represent important information for evaluating the total potentials of the resources. For this purpose the composition of the biomass needs to be considered and compared to that of the catches. The available data permit only a rough assessment. If the main forms covering up to 70-80 percent of the biomass is included, the composition will be as follows:

Total fish biomass (1000 tonnes) and its main components:

Pelagic community	Demersal community
450-750	300-500
Anchovies	Hairtails
Sardine-like fish	Croakers
Hairtails	Catfishes
Ponyfish	Grunts
	Rays
	Breams

The officially reported fish landings of Pakistan for 1981 are shown by main groups of species in Table 9.

Fish landings do not necessarily reflect the composition of the catches since undesirable forms are often discarded at sea. Thus a considerable part of the fish by-catch in the 30 000 tonnes shrimp fishery must be discarded, and the total catch of demersal fish is probably appreciably higher than the recorded landings. Information on this by-catch should be taken into account in further evaluations.

For the pelagic forms, however, one can note that the total landings of these types (oil sardine, mackerel, carangids, jacks, barracudas) amounts to less than 80 000 tonnes. This may be compared with a total biomass estimate of between 450 and 750 000 tonnes for small pelagic fish. Within this total group there is no doubt a considerable potential for increased catches. The additional potential would first of all be for anchovies, but there is likely to be underutilized resources also within the sardine types of fish.

Table 9. Nominal landings of marine fish in Pakistan by main species or groups 1981, (Source Table. E4, FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics vol. 52).

	Tonnes	%
Indian oil sardine	56 346	22
Skates and rays	44 705	17
Natantia decapods (shrimp)	30 000	11
Sharks	18 193	7
Croakers, drums	16 657	6
Sea catfishes	10 269	4
Dorab wolf-herring	9 581	4
Kawakawa Euthynnus	8 212	3
King mackerel	7 490	3
Mullets	7 018	3
Carangids (not identified)	5 807	2
Largehead Hairtail	5 000	2
Grunts	4 339	2
Jacks, crevalles	3 987	2
Hilsa	3 923	1
Barracudas	3 606	1
Black pomfret	3 273	1
Groupers	3 300	1
Seabreams	3 099	1
Conger eels	3 065	1
Snappers	2 313	1
Fourfinger threadfin	2 002	1
Others	9 354	4
Total marine catch	261 539

For the demersal forms the 1981 landings of the six most common forms which comprise about 3/4 of the biomass of 300-500 000 tonnes, was about 80 000 tonnes. Even if some of these forms are part of a shrimp by-catch and discards, there is still likely to be room for significant increases of catch within this group. The additional potential would first of all be for hairtails, but there is likely to be room for increased catches also of croakers, catfishes, grunts and breams.

The survey information do not permit any evaluation of the state of exploitation of the most common forms in the Pakistan fishery, such as oil sardine, rays, shrimp and sharks. The conclusions that have been drawn above are of a general nature. In order to be of use in a fishery development context they should be supplemented by more specific information on the resources, their catchability and distribution in time and space. Some of the detailed catch data from the surveys are appended to this report. Similar data are available from previous surveys. The descriptions of the distribution of the resources presented under Section 3 above may also be of interest in this context.