Fishermen in Charfasson and Monpura, on Bhola's southern coast, say the sea no longer yields the catch it once did while every cost, from trawler fuel to ice, has risen. Unable to keep up with NGO instalments and the interest on advance loans (dadon) from moneylenders, many are now thinking of leaving the trade.

Nurhossain Majhi, a veteran fisherman at Samraj fish landing, says one trip used to bring in enough fish to cover the fuel and keep his household for seven days; now he borrows thousands of taka to go to sea and still comes back empty-handed. "Even paying the moneylender's interest has become hard," he said.

Several thousand fishermen make their living on the Meghna and Tentulia rivers. The reasons they give for losing interest in the work are the pressure to repay loans, poor catches, one ban after another, rising prices of daily necessities and fuel, and natural disasters.

Babul Majhi of Char Kukri, 40 years a fisherman, said the trade was profitable when fuel was cheap but now it is a struggle just to take a trawler out. Fisherman Forkan Mia said half of the five-month fishing season is taken up by bans, and much of the rest by storms and rough weather.

Anwar, who fishes on the Tentulia, and Nurullah Mia of Samraj said points at sea that once reliably yielded hilsa now hold no fish, and that losses now outweigh profits.

Charfasson upazila senior fisheries officer Joyonto Kumar Opu said climate change, pollution, disasters and other human causes have reduced fish production and are shifting where fish move and breed in the rivers and the sea. He said several projects were under way to improve fishermen's finances.

The upazila has 43,300 registered fishermen, 25,000 of whom hold fisher cards. During the hilsa breeding-season ban, 35,386 poor fishermen receive rice support, and in 2023-24 the hilsa resource development and management project gave heifer calves to 2,000 fishermen as an alternative source of income. The report is by The Daily Observer's correspondent.

Source: The Daily Observer