"The trawlers have eaten away all the fish," says fisherman Siddique. "Fish was in abundance near the shore before the deep-sea trawlers came. Now all the fish are caught by big trawlers and I’m in such poverty that I had to pull my 15-year-old son out of school."

New ActionAid research shows how thousands of other local Pakistani fisherfolk like Siddique are being pushed into poverty due to over fishing by trawlers.

By highlighting the impact of over-fishing in Pakistan, ActionAid’s report - Taking the Fish – warns of the dangers to other fishing communities in developing countries if moves to open up markets in the ongoing World Trade Organization talks go ahead.

Pakistani fisher groups say trawlers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan encroach on local waters and use giant fishing nets to scoop up and deplete fish stocks under Pakistan’s policy of opening up its waters.

Rogue trawlers are accused of using damaging nets and of indiscriminately catching and dumping huge quantities of young, unwanted, or dead fish at sea – leaving less for locals to catch.

"They catch all types of fish, and when they sort them 90% is discarded," says Mohammad Ali Shah, chair of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.

"The trawlers use harmful nets, and now there’s no fish in the sea," says Hassan Dablo, a fisherman from Sindh province. "I can’t give food to my family or the other basic needs of life."

"The people are starving," says Tahira Ali, from the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum in Karachi. "They don’t have bread to eat and they weep when they come home without fish at night."

"This case highlights the appalling effect on poor people of unfairly opening up fishing markets. The rights of coastal communities must urgently be protected" says Aftab Alam Khan, head of ActionAid’s trade campaign.

"Rich nations must ditch their aggressive plans on fish tariffs at the WTO, otherwise the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of poor fisher folk are seriously under threat," says Alex Wijeratna, ActionAid campaigner and author of the report.