Fishermen have caught a black carp weighing 24 kg in the Meghna river off Bhola. Md Sultan Sardar, a fisherman from Bhola Sadar upazila, cast his net at high tide on Friday afternoon (25 September) and the fish came up in it.

When the fish was landed at Fakir Dalal's depot at the Taltali fish ghat of Ilisha Junction in the evening, local people and fish traders crowded round. After a round of bidding, those present and the depot owners set its price at Tk 17,500, and 18 people bought it together and shared it.

Bhola Sadar senior upazila fisheries officer Mehedi Hasan Bhuiyan said that from the photograph the fish appeared to be a black carp. It is not native to Bangladesh; the carp comes from East Asia, especially China, and is farmed on a limited scale in ponds here. It feeds mainly on snails and mussels.

Black carp in ponds usually reach 10 to 12 kg, he said, but with plenty of natural food and a favourable environment in a river they can grow to 30 kg or more. This one may have escaped from a farm pond in flood or monsoon water and grown large in the river.

Large hilsa have been landed at Taltali before, but the 24 kg black carp drew crowds of the curious along the ghat on Friday evening.

Reported by Md Anwar Parvez, Bhola correspondent.

Source: Desh Rupantor