The people living along Balochistan’s beaches have always fought to defend the sea that feeds them. For years, fishermen from Gwadar to Lasbela accused large trawlers from Sindh of sweeping up everything in their path when they entered Balochistan’s twelve-nautical-mile waters. Their prohibited wire nets or “gujja” trapped juvenile fish, breeding stock and species with scant commercial value, leaving little behind. This fight defined the Haq Do Tehreek movement that united thousands around a single demand: save the sea before it is emptied. Today, that friction has turned inwards over a fish that barely fits in your palm and is banned from fishing: the Beechum (or Paseli). Scientists call it the Fringescale Sardine because it rarely grows beyond 11cm and spends its life moving in dense schools. “We never used to catch it,” says 65-year-old Ghulam Muhammad who spent his life in the waters off Ormara. “The bigger fish follow these schools of Beechum and those are the ones we actually wanted,” he says. “If we wipe out Beechum, one day we will lose the larger fish too.“ This understanding shaped the trade along the Makran coast long before governments spoke of marine conservation. “Ear
