The government's 22-day ban on catching hilsa in the sea and rivers ended at 12 midnight last night. From the small hours of Tuesday, fishermen set off with their trawlers for the sea and went down to the rivers. After 22 idle days, life has returned to Barguna's fishing villages, and the landing centres along the Barguna coast are set to fill again with the calls of fishermen, wholesalers and warehouse traders.

The fishermen had spent the last days of the ban getting ready to return to work. With fishing halted for so long in the Bay of Bengal and the rivers, they are hopeful of bigger catches now. Many planned to set out for the sea on Tuesday afternoon.

"Out of respect for the government's law we did not go out for hilsa," they said. "We suffered a lot of losses during this break, but we did get 20 kg of rice from the government during the ban. It feels very good to think we can fish again from today."

According to the Barguna district fisheries office, the government banned hilsa fishing in the Bay of Bengal and the rivers from 3 October to 25 October for the main hilsa breeding season. During the ban, 600 tonnes of rice were distributed to the district's 34,074 registered fishermen.

Golam Mostafa Chowdhury, president of the Barguna District Fishermen's Trawler Owners' Association, said fishermen began heading to sea when the ban ended at midnight.

District fisheries officer Biswajit Kumar said the ban on catching hilsa at sea was observed successfully. Local ice factories were kept closed, and fishermen were given government food assistance during the ban.

Source: BSS. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.