A drive at Akmal Ali fishermen's ghat under the EPZ police station in Chattogram city seized 2,500 kg of mother hilsa. The fish were seized from four fishing boats that had come in from the sea. Four people, one from each boat, were fined a total of about Tk 1 lakh 20 thousand.

The river police, the district fisheries office, the Coast Guard and Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) carried out the drive jointly on Sunday morning (12 October).

Sadarghat river police station officer-in-charge (OC) Mizanur Rahman said the drive at Akmal Ali ghat followed information that hilsa were being caught at sea during the ban, while the mother hilsa conservation campaign was under way. The 2,500 kg of mother hilsa were seized from four fishing boats returning from the sea, and four people were fined a total of Tk 1 lakh 20 thousand for catching hilsa.

According to the Chattogram district fisheries office, the seized fish have been handed over through the district administration for distribution to local orphanages, madrasas and social welfare organisations.

The government has banned catching, selling, transporting and storing hilsa across the country for 22 days, from 4 to 25 October, to protect mother hilsa in the main breeding season.

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