A special drive to protect mother hilsa will run from 4 to 25 October. This year it covers the four days before the Ashwini full moon and the three days after the new moon, lasting 22 days in total.

The announcement was made at a press conference at the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock on Monday (29 September) on the "Mother Hilsa Conservation Drive 2025" during the main hilsa breeding season, and on the availability, prices and overall situation of hilsa across the country.

At the press conference, Adviser Farida Akhter said that to keep up the trend of sustainable growth in hilsa production, a notification had been issued under Rule 13 of the Protection and Conservation of Fish Rules, 1985, under the Fish Protection and Conservation Act, 1950, banning the catching, transport, storage, marketing, buying, selling and exchange of hilsa nationwide during the main breeding season, so that mature hilsa can spawn safely.

The Department of Fisheries has announced that in the main hilsa breeding season of 2025, the special drive will run from 19 Ashwin to 9 Kartik 1432 (4 October to 25 October 2025), covering the four days before the Ashwini full moon and the three days after the new moon, 22 days in all.

The period was set in line with the views of the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), other relevant agencies and, in particular, fishers. Because both the full moon and the new moon of the breeding season matter for spawning, both phases have been included to ensure maximum breeding. The programme is known as the "Mother Hilsa Conservation Drive 2025".

During this time catching, transporting, selling, storing and exchanging hilsa in rivers is completely banned. Along with fisheries officials, all law enforcement agencies, including the river police, Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force, will take part in the drive.

As part of this year's initiative, 620,140 fishing families in 165 upazilas of 37 districts will receive VGF (rice), at 25kg per family, requiring 15,503.50 tonnes of rice in total.

During the drive the entry of fishing trawlers from outside the country's waters will be strictly controlled, and dredging in rivers will be completely suspended. Hilsa fishing in the sea, coast and estuaries will also be completely stopped for the 22 days of the main breeding season.

In last year's 22-day drive, from 13 October to 3 November, 2,169 mobile courts and 9,813 operations seized 54.86 tonnes of hilsa, destroyed 612.11 lakh metres of net and collected Tk 75.27 lakh in fines.

According to research by the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI), the 2024 ban allowed 52.5% of mother hilsa to spawn safely, adding 44.25 thousand crore jatka/fry to the hilsa population. The fry, or jatka, hatched from these eggs will grow into mature hilsa in future.

The adviser said: "We hope the 2025 Mother Hilsa Conservation Drive will be run in a more organised and effective way than the previous year."

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