After a two-month closure in March and April, more than 50,000 fishers in Chandpur went out from midnight to catch hilsa and other fish in the Padma and Meghna. Fishers are busy again, bringing their catch to the wholesale depots where it is bought and sold, though they said they did not catch as many hilsa as hoped on the first day.

A visit to the Chandpur Boro Station fish landing, the wholesale hilsa market, from Thursday morning (1 May) to noon found traders and workers busy again as sales resumed after a long break. The landing, quiet for weeks, was loud with calls once more. But traders said prices were high because the supply of hilsa from the river was very low.

Fisher Monir Hossain said: "I went out fishing at dawn. There are hardly any fish in the river." Fishers are not getting hilsa, he said, but are catching poa, pangas, shrimp and other local fish, which are being brought to the Boro Station landing for sale. "But these fish don't even cover the fuel cost," he said.

Hilsa trader Nabir Hossain said the scene at the landing was completely different from last year, with hardly any fish. In today's market a one-kilogram hilsa was selling for Tk 3,000, and he said prices were unlikely to fall unless supply rose.

Shabe Barat Sarkar, general secretary of the Chandpur Fish Traders' Association, said fewer hilsa are usually caught at this time of year. Low water in the rivers and river pollution could also reduce supply. But when river levels rise and rain comes, hilsa and all kinds of fish will be available, he said.

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