The two-month ban has ended, and fishermen have gone back to sea and river. But on the Meghna and Tetulia rivers they are not getting the hilsa they hoped for, and every day they return to shore disappointed.

They say the fish they catch sell for very little money, not enough to run their households, and they are now worried about repaying their debts.

Fishermen on the bank of the Meghna at Tulatuli in Bhola Sadar upazila said they went out in groups on the Meghna and Tetulia from Wednesday (1 May) after the ban ended. Every day, full of hope, they comb the rivers with nets, boats and trawlers from dawn until midnight, but the nets are not bringing in the hilsa they expected.

A fisherman named Ikram said: "During the two-month drive (ban) there was no income. I ran my household on loans and couldn't pay my NGO instalments. I thought that after the ban I would go to the river and catch lots of hilsa, sell it at the ghat, repay my loans and dues, and run the household with the rest. Without enough hilsa, nothing is working out."

Another, Saju Majhi, told Jago News: "Last year after the ban I went to the river and caught a good amount of hilsa. But this year I'm catching very little. I don't know what has happened to the hilsa in the river this time. I'm worried about paying off my debts."

Five fishermen led by Jamal Majhi cast their nets from a trawler in the Meghna from dawn until 1pm on Thursday (2 May) and caught eight hilsa of various sizes, which they sold at Tulatuli ghat for Tk 3,600.

Jamal Majhi said Tk 1,200 of this went to pay the trawler's fuel shop and Tk 650 to the trawler owner. The remaining Tk 1,750 was shared among the five boatmen at Tk 350 each.

Kamal Hossain and Al-Amin, wholesalers at the Tulatuli fish ghat, said they are in difficulty after borrowing money on dadon (interest) from wholesale centres in Dhaka and Chandpur during the ban and advancing it to fishermen. Fishermen are catching very little hilsa, so they cannot send enough to the wholesale centres and are counting losses.

Bhola district fisheries officer Biswajit Kumar Dey said there will be a new moon in seven days. If there is heavy rain then, hilsa will come into the rivers from the sea, and fishermen will get the catch they hope for.

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