ISLAMABAD: With their snow-white coats, drooping pink ears and regal build, Rajanpuri Nukra goats are turning heads and emptying wallets at Islamabad’s bustling Eid Al-Adha cattle market this year.

A strain of the Beetal goat native to the Rajanpur region of Pakistan’s Punjab province, they are also known for their large size and muscular build.

Highly prized for their meat, and a popular choice for Eid Al-Adha sacrifices, some have sold for as much as Rs2 million ($7,140) this season.

At Islamabad’s cattle market on Bhatta Chowk earlier this week, many people gathered around the goats to admire their appearance and snap pictures, while others negotiated deals.

“We have come here from Rajanpur as people in Islamabad and Rawalpindi prefer Rajanpuri goats over other breeds due to their white and pink coloration and impressive height,” said merchant Hamza Ali.

He added that he had brought 20 of the prized animals to the market and sold most of them within four days.

“We’re getting good prices for them here. Of the 20 goats we brought, one sold for Rs2 million last night.”

Traders at the market have been selling the Rajanpuri goats for anywhere between $715 and $7,140, several merchants said.

Highlighting the care involved, Muhammad Umair, a cattle trader, said the goats are nurtured from birth, referring to them as a “purebred line.”

“We divide them into two groups. Those with good height and large size receive a special diet that includes wanda, choker, desi ghee and other nutritious ingredients,” he told Arab News as he petted one of his animals.

Goats similar in size to regular breeds are available at lower prices but still higher than other strains.

“It has large pink ears, white eyes, and a pink nose, along with a pure white coat, which makes it highly attractive to buyers,” Umair added.

Muhammad Bilal, a 23-year-old student from Islamabad, said he wanted to buy a Rajanpuri goat because of its white coat and long ears.

“Although the price is a bit higher, we will still buy it because we really like it,” he told Arab News.

Another customer Ilyas Khan, 40, expressed frustration over the high prices, saying they were unaffordable for most market visitors.

“My children took pictures with them,” Khan, a businessman, said. “But these are out of our reach as even the smallest ones are starting at Rs150,000, which is too much.”

HELSINKI: Decades of pollution and climate change have caused fish to disappear from the Baltic Sea at an alarming rate, with the European Union on Thursday vowing to make the sea an “urgent priority.”

Unveiling its road map to protect Europe’s seas, the European Ocean Pact, Brussels announced a summit on the state of the Baltic Sea in late September.

The semi-enclosed sea is surrounded by industrial and agricultural nations Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the three Baltic states.

Connected to the Atlantic only by the narrow waters of the Danish straits, the Baltic is known for its shallow, low-salinity waters, which are highly sensitive to the climate and environmental changes that have accumulated over the years.

“Today, the once massive Baltic cod stocks have collapsed, herring stocks in several sub-basins are balancing on critical levels, sprat recruitment is at a record low and wild salmon stocks are in decline,” Swedish European MP Isabella Lovin, rapporteur for the EU Committee of Fishing, warned in a report, calling the situation “critical.”

The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world’s largest dead marine zones, mainly due to excess nutrient runoff into the sea from human activities on land — a challenge the sea has long grappled with.

The runoff has primarily been phosphorus and nitrogen from waste water and fertilizers used in agriculture, as well as other activities such as forestry.

It causes vast algae blooms in summer, a process known as eutrophication that removes oxygen from the water, leaving behind dead seabeds and marine habitats and threatening species living in the Baltic.

Today, agriculture is the biggest source of nutrient pollution.

Marine biodiversity in the relatively small sea has also deteriorated due to pollution from hazardous substances, land use, extraction of resources and climate change, according to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM).

“The state of the Baltic Sea is not good,” Maria Laamanen, a senior adviser at the Finnish environment ministry, told AFP.

Climate change poses “a massive additional challenge” for the marine environment, she said.

Of the world’s coastal seas, the Baltic Sea is warming the fastest.

A 2024 study said sea surface and sea floor temperatures have increased by 1.8 and 1.3 degrees Celsius respectively in the Finnish archipelago in the northern Baltic Sea, in the period from 1927 to 2020.

The consequences of rising temperatures already affect species, while increased rainfall has led to more runoff from land to sea.

Better waste water treatment and gypsum treatment of agricultural soil, as well as an expansion of protected marine areas in Finland, have had a positive effect on the maritime environment, according to Laamanen, who said environmental engagement had grown in recent years.

“The situation would be much worse without the measures already implemented,” she said.

In her report, Lovin called for an ambitious reform of fisheries, with stronger attention paid to environmental and climate change impacts.

The report also questioned whether the Baltic could continue to sustain industrial-scale trawling, and suggested giving “priority access to low-impact fisheries and fishing for human consumption.”

The head of the Finnish Fishermen’s Association (SAKL) Kim Jordas said eutrophication was to blame for the declining fish stocks in the Baltic Sea, not overfishing.

“Looking at cod for example, it is entirely due to the state of the Baltic Sea and the poor oxygen situation,” Jordas told AFP.

In Finland, the number of commercial fishermen has been declining, with a total of around 400 active today.