Karachi: A Pakistan fisherman has become a millionaire overnight after auctioning a haul of rare golden fish named ‘Sowa’.
The fisherman Haji Baloch, a resident of the impoverished Ibrahim Hyderi fishing village, caught the fish from the Arabian Sea on Monday.
“One fish fetches around 7 million rupees in the auction,” Baloch said.
“The entire catch was sold for some 70 million rupees at the Karachi harbour on Friday morning when fishermen auctioned off their catch,” Mubarak Khan from the Pakistan Fishermen Folk Forum said.
Baloch said that he would share the money with his crew of seven people.
“We were fishing in the open sea of Karachi…when we came across this huge cache of golden fish, and it was a windfall for us,” he added.
The Sowa fish is considered priceless and rare since substances from its belly are said to have great healing and medicinal properties. A thread-like substance from the fish is also used in surgical procedures.
The fish, which often weighs between 20 to 40 kgs and can grow up to 1.5 meters, is much sought after in East Asian countries.
With inputs from IANS