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A Coral Reef has been Discover near the Karachi Coast


Jan 15th Divers from “Karachi Scuba Diving Center” were diving at Bachum Reef near Cherna Island, the visibility was 40 to 60ft. normal for the month of January. The reef was full of life the color full fishes were busy swimming in and around the rocky formation. This is one of the best dive sites we have near Karachi shore, where the 40 ft drop from the top of the Plato, which is already 50 ft. deep, to the bottom reaches at a depth of 90 ft makes this dive site perfect location for a deep dive training site.


The Second dive was planned at Cherna Island north-west point, 40 ft deep dive, the visibility was excellent, and water current was pretty strong, moving westerly. Due to the strong current boat anchor could not hold properly and the boat drifted while we were gearing up we decided to make drift dive and discover new ground. We descended on anchor line and started swimming across the current towards the island. Suddenly we notice small patches of coral about 6 to 18 inches diameter and 10 t0 12 inches high approximately 20 ft. apart. And the density increases as we moved towards the island and to our surprise we landed in a good size of coral reef.

There have been small patches of reef existing earlier but this one was gorgeous. A variety of corals we found were simply astonishing, The biodiversity on the reef was remarkable; we noticed different types of Sponges, Anemones, Worms, Crustaceans, Bryozoans, Molluscs, Echinoderms, and a large selection of coral fishes we explore the new found reef for good 40 minutes the maximum time we were allowed to stay at that depth before getting into decompression problems. After surfacing we marked the reef site into our GPS and from January onwards we made 10 dives to explore the reef and documented the following marine life in the form of pictures and video clips.


Corals: - Brain Coral, Disk corals, Brown boulder corals, gorgonian, Orange Daisy coral, Tentacle coral, Flex coral and many more Varity of coral.


Fishes: - Long fin Banner fish, Blue-ring fish, Sergeant fish, Chevron Barracuda, Parrotfish, and Black spotted Puffer, Blue-spotted Fantail Stingray, Yellow Snapper, Sweet lips, Coronation Grouper, Coral Grouper, and Giant grouper, many verity of Scorpion fish, Moray eels, were documented.


Anemone & Jellyfish:- Tube Anemones, Bulb-tentacle Sea anemones, Anemone coral, Upside down jellyfish, Stinging Hydrozoan etc. Worms: - Striped Ribbon Worm, Fan Tube Worm, Bristle Worm, Spaghetti Worm, Christmas Tree Worm, Flat worm. and Peacock worm.


Destruction by ignorance:- It has been a normal practice for Navy to target Cherna Island, and their indiscriminate shelling has been destroying our coral reefs. Coral reefs are the most productive area and are pivotal in the food web changes that may lead to changes in the community structure of the commercially important Organism. This area is also famous for sports and commercial fishing in fact these fishing ground are the nearest to the shore and as well as our

  sherman’s livelihood depends on them.


The nearest fishing village is Mubarak Village, Having been so important village they have not being provided any basics facility. They have been asking for a jetty for so long so they could go out and fish during the ruff weather and earn enough to feed their children, the fisher man from this village have been protesting against this shelling for over a half century Unfortunately no one has listen to theie problems, Not yet. Instead Pak Navy has occupied a large area of their land by force.

As matter of fact this is the best location for developing a modern fishing village and they can than develop Ecotourism, and worked with the authorities, NGO’s & CBO’s to fight pollution. The source of pollution in this area are the two industrial unit continuously discharging their cooling water contaminated with sulphur and other pollutant, and the temperature which is few degree higher than ambient temperature causing a change in the structure of the existing organisms. The damaged has already started and the following nasty changes have been noticed: -


 Bleaching process has been noticed among the corals in the last few years. Especially Brain Corals, Flex Corals and Dome Corals are the most effected ones.

 Light house close to the Mubarak Village, where the changes in biodiversity had been notice in the flora. The underwater forest density had been reduced near Cape Monze.

 Bit Coli Cove where the growth of the alga has been found differently in the last few years. (A prominent change in the color and the thickness has been noticed by the amateur Scuba Divers

Throwing anchor down can damage coral reef instead, marking buoys could be provided so that fisherman could tie their boats. This not only makes it a lot easier for them but also safe guard marine life. It’s high time that government of Sindh should take serious measures to protect our Coral Reef by declaring this area “National Parks”.


Enhance awareness.  Eco-tourism, involving the local community.  Need for on site Research.  Educational tour for Schools.  New pharmaceutical products  Cleaner environment and a bigger fish catch  Conservation of nature for the future generation

DIVER SHOULD RESPECT MARINE LIFE The PADI Open Water Diver manual has a piece of advice to divers “your interaction with aquatic animals and plants carries both a privilege and responsibility…because aquatic animals are very sensitive to the environment, approaching them can change their behavior and the natural rhythm of their life. Quite, smooth moment – which is less likely to disturb them- will reward you with more opportunity to observe aquatic animals behaving naturally, rather fleeing or hiding. It is your responsibility to be assured that your interaction with aquatic life help minimal impact on the organisms you in counter while diving “Responsibility is an important factor as careless diver can destroy precious marine life. Diver can contribute to protecting the natural environment by learning how to control their buoyancy and not land roughly on the sea bed as they can damage the coral reef or rear aquatic plant that takes years to grow.


Aquatic animals are not aggressive unless provoked. For that matter even sharks are harmless if you remain calm on the bottom” To avoid potential problem with aquatic animals the divers manual offer some guide lines “treat all animals with respect”.  Never tease or intentionally disturb them.  Avoid wearing shinny, dangling jewelry that may attract the interest of some animals.” where gloves and an exposure suit to avoid sting and cuts”.  Establish neutral buoyancy to keep off the bottom.  Marne life could be further protected, by educating fisher man and making them aware of this aspect.”

We firmly believes that there should be a law to stop diver from picking up any marine object.” this is an offence in the Maldives where a diver could be slapped a fine of $500 and in California; the authorities can confiscate your diving gear. Some thing should be done to preserve marine life in Karachi before it’s too late.



Yousuf Ali Director Operation Karachi Scuba Diving Center C-32, 9th Street , Suit # 7, Baddar Commercial Area Phase V Ext. D H A Karachi - 75500. Coordinate: - (24°47′46.07″ N 67°02′38.44″E) Mobile: 0300 219 0304 PTCL (021) 534 0595, 534 0528 Email: - dive_in_karachi@yahoo.com You may check out KSDC’s activities by clicking the following links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Astola_Feb_20_2006_%2822%29.JPG http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4496889505096246417&q=clown+grouper http://health.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/dive_in_karachi http://www.panoramio.com/photo/929837#comment http://groups.google.com/groups?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GFRC,GFRC:2007-12,GFRC:en&q=ksdc+scuba+diving+club ksdc-scuba-diving-club@googlegroups.com http://groups.google.com.pk/group/ksdc-scuba-diving-club?hl=en http://www.panoramio.com/user/146305 ksdc-scuba-diving-club@googlegroups.com http://www.panoramio.com/photo/680488


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