With the ban over, fishers are catching hilsa as normal and the fish have begun reaching the wholesale markets of the south. But arrivals fell between 26 and 27 October, fish traders at the landing centre on Port Road in Barishal city said on the morning of 27 October.
They said hilsa from local rivers are now reaching the wholesalers, and prices have risen because supply was low that day. Prices will fall if the expected quantity of sea hilsa arrives, they said.
Imran, a fisherman from Mehendiganj, said fishers did not find hilsa in the rivers over the previous day and night as they had on the first night after the ban, and sudden rain and rough weather late at night also disrupted fishing, so supply was somewhat lower.
Old fish in the first-day glut
Workers at Port Road said fresh hilsa have a mix of white and golden colour, but most of the previous day's fish were a mix of red and white, and hilsa turn reddish as they age. By their reckoning, the fish that reached the market the previous day included old hilsa, meaning fish caught during the ban, which is why so much was on show. With only normal-day catches arriving now, the quantity has fallen sharply. Traders said more than 2,000 maunds of hilsa came into the Port Road market the previous day, but that day's total would not pass 1,000.
Bimal Chandra Das, fisheries officer (hilsa) at the Barishal district fisheries office, said hilsa that have spawned will now return to the sea, while some that have not yet spawned remain in the rivers. Thousands of fishers went out together when the ban ended and cast nets wherever they could, so a large part of the fish in the rivers was caught on the first day. Catches will be lower for a few days until the next tide, he said.
He added, however, that the rainy weather that day should bring good catches in the rivers, and he hoped more hilsa would reach the market the next day.
Although supply was low, buyers crowded the market from the morning. Retail sellers said sales were slow because of the high prices.
Source: Banglanews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
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