With the end of the 22-day ban to protect mother hilsa, fishermen in Chandpur have gone back to the river and are busy again after the long break. But they said they did not get the amount of hilsa they had hoped for on the first day.

With the ban over, trading in hilsa and all other fish has resumed at the Chandpur Boro Station fish landing. After a long closure the landing is once again busy with buying and selling, bringing activity back for traders, workers and commission agents.

Fishermen Shukkur Ali and Abdur Rahman said they followed the government's 22-day ban and went out on the river at night, but there is very little hilsa in the Padma and Meghna and they are still not seeing the hilsa they hoped for. So alongside hilsa they are catching pangas, air and other fish, though they hope hilsa may be found within a few days.

Buyer Ibrahim said hilsa sales had started at the landing, so he came to buy, but prices were high. Above all, he said, most of the hilsa at the wholesale stalls was old or stored fish, so he was not keen to buy.

Hilsa traders Nabir Hossain and Nahid Hasan said catching hilsa and all other fish in the river had been banned for 22 days, and in line with government rules buying and selling had also stopped at the Boro Station landing. They were happy that sales of hilsa and other fish had resumed after so long. Not much fish reached the landing on the first day, but hilsa supply may rise within this week, and then prices will fall, they said.

Traders said a 1 kg hilsa was selling at the landing on the day for Tk 2,000 to Tk 2,300. Very few hilsa are reaching the wholesale stalls from the southern region, and once hilsa from Chandpur and the south start arriving together, prices are likely to come down.

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