Fishermen have netted a giant "raja" (king) hilsa in the Meghna river at Manpura in Bhola. The fish, weighing 2kg 400g, was sold for Tk 8,500.

It was caught on the morning of 20 June in the Meghna near Dhalchar in Kalatali union of Manpura upazila.

Fishermen and traders at Ramnewaz ghat in Manpura said Kamal and his fellow fishermen went out to catch hilsa in the Meghna near Dhalchar that morning. The raja hilsa came up in his net along with hilsa of various sizes. He then brought it to the wholesale depot of Amanat Ullah Alamgir at Ramnewaz ghat, where it was auctioned in front of several wholesalers and traders. Trader Rajib Chowdhury bought it with the highest bid of Tk 8,500.

Rajib Chowdhury said the fish weighed 2kg 400g. Large hilsa are generally called raja hilsa, he said, and they are in higher demand and fetch better prices at the wholesale depots of Dhaka's Karwan Bazar, which is why he paid so much for it.

He added that the raja hilsa was sent to Dhaka by launch at around 3pm along with hilsa of other sizes, and he hoped it would sell for up to Tk 10,000 at Karwan Bazar.

Bhola district fisheries officer Md Iqbal Hossain said the fishing ban in the Meghna and Tentulia rivers of Bhola and in the Bay of Bengal had been completed successfully, which is why fishermen are now getting large hilsa in the rivers.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.