QUETTA/KARACHI: The Environmental Protection of Balochistan under Environment Act 2012 on Friday imposed temporary ban on tour operation of Churna Island running business with having NOC.

In a notification, the Environmental Protection Agency of Balochistan banned tour operators of Churna Island providing tourism services to the people of Balochistan without obtaining NOC from provincial environment department.

The move was announced to protect the Tourism Spot Churna Island from pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency precluded all tour operators to submit their environmental friendly and tourists’ security plan in the Provincial Environment Department and paid fees to the Government of Balochistan.

The registration process of tours operation would be commenced in the office of Provincial Environment Office.

Meanwhile, the regional director for World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-Pakistan) Dr Babar Khan on Friday stressed the need for joint efforts to determine the source of the oil spill which occurred along Karachi’s coastal belt, spreading from Mubarak village to Manora, and initiate a clean-up operation.

The environmental organization’s team visited the affected areas to assess damage to the coastal habitat and marine biota. They reported dead animals smeared with oil in Mubbarak village and Sandspit. The team collected dead crustaceans and fishes along the Hawksbay beach. A dead green turtle was also found on Sandspit Beach.

Local fishermen reported an oil slick near Churna Island on Wednesday which had beached on Mubarak village by Thursday morning and Sandspit beach by afternoon. The oil seems to have weathered and turned into semi-solid tar indicating that it might have released a few days back, said WWF.

Babar Khan said samples of the oil found at Mubbarak village and Sandspit have been collected and will be analysed for fingerprinting.

Oil fingerprinting is done through Gas Chromatograph (GC–MS) and Spectroscopic (fluorescence, FT-IR) and ultra-high resolution mass spectrometry methods (FT-ICRMS), which will help trace the source of oil pollution.

WWF-Pakistan’s technical advisor for marine fisheries, Muhammad Moazzam Khan, says the oil spill is likely to have a serious impact on the marine ecosystem as it has smeared entire rocky beaches covering intertidal rocky platforms and rock pools.

According to Moazzam Khan, Churna Island is one of the most sensitive habitats along Pakistan’s coast; home to a diverse marine life and among the few areas where coral is found. It is also a significant diving and snorkelling site along the coast of Pakistan.

He said cleaning up an oil spill is extremely difficult.

Oil spills disrupt marine life and have an impact the ecosystem years after a spill occurs. Initially, after the spill, oil covers everything from beach sand to rocks at the bottom of the sea, killing most of the marine life. Sea birds, which cannot relocate, get oil on their feathers and cannot maintain their body temperature.

Dolphins and whales also cannot breathe in an oil spill as the oil clogs their blowholes. An oil spill has the worst toll on fish, particularly if the oil comes in contact with fish eggs.