Charna Island is located near Mubarak Goth, Kiamari Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan. It’s a small, uninhabited island located in the Arabian Sea, about 9 km (5.6 mi) west of the mouth of the Hub River called "Manjhar Beach".
Charna is approximately 1.2 km (0.75 mi) long and 0.5 km (0.31 mi) wide. Charna is also locally known "Cheerno". It is 6 km away from Mubarak Village. Fishermen from Mubarak Goth go fishing near Charna Island.
Charna is used as a firing range by the Pakistan Navy. It is also used by tourists for activities such as scuba diving, freediving, underwater photography, hiking, speed boating, kneeboarding, wakesurfing, banana tubing, jet skiing, cliff diving & snorkeling.
The area surrounding Charna is popular for scuba diving because of the presence of widely varied marine life and different kinds of coral reef.
There are more than 60 types of corals found near Charna waters and many new corals started to flourish" after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Jellyfish are found in large numbers during October.
On 14 Sep 2017, a mother blue whale (17m in length) was spotted near the island along with her cub. This was 1st sighting of a living blue whale in the Pakistani sea. There have been 47 sightings of baleen whales but none of them were blue whales.
On 22 Nov 2017, a killer whale was spotted near the island, a rare sighting as killer whales are found in deep water, whereas the depth of the water where the whale was sighted was only 72m deep. It’s also the first sighting of a killer whale since 2003.
Other marine life around Charna includes the yellow-bellied sea snake, great barracuda, narrow-barred Spanish mackerel, cobia, mahi-mahi, skipjack tuna, angel fish, sea urchin, sea fan, oyster, ray fish and rare green turtle.
The Pakistan Game Fishing Association (PGFA) holds national angling competitions near Charna. It is the presence of coral reefs around this island that attracts the number of big game fish around it.
All those having a taste for adventure, a capacity to admire natural beauty, and a desire to discover one of the hidden wonders of our Pakistan, they should definitely plan a trip to Charna, and perhaps even a dive below.