"For a month we have been cooking and eating on the trawler. Always about to go to sea, we cannot go home either. And with the weather bad, we cannot go to sea. Twenty fishermen shopping for food every day, ice going to waste while we wait: this is how our life is going."

That is how Tayeb Majhi, 35, skipper of the trawler FB Ma-Babar Doa, described their situation. The trawler set out to fish at sea from Hatiya in Noakhali and took shelter at Mohipur port in Patuakhali.

The ban on sea fishing ended on 11 June. A week later Tayeb Majhi went to sea from Hatiya with 20 fishermen. After four days of casting nets they got some fish, but unable to stay out in the rough weather, they took shelter with the trawler at the nearby Alipur ghat.

Wahab Mia, a fisherman on the trawler, said: "We don't go home; if we do, people ask for money we owe. And we have to take money home for our families. Nothing works out. We sit here eating and adding to our debt."

According to the skipper, when they went to sea after the ban they took equipment worth Tk 7.5 lakh and caught fish worth Tk 3 lakh in four days. A month later they went out again with nets, fuel, ice and food worth Tk 5 lakh 30 thousand, but this time came back with fish worth only Tk 2 lakh 80 thousand.

A visit to the Alipur-Mohipur and Kuakata fish markets on Friday, 25 July, found that many were returning because of the bad weather, some with fish and some empty-handed. Hilsa prices remain beyond buyers' reach. Fish of 900 grams to 1 kg sold at Tk 98,000 a maund, 800-900 grams at Tk 75,000-78,000, 700-800 grams at Tk 68,000-70,000 and 500-600 grams at Tk 56,000-58,000. Small hilsa sold at Tk 40,000-50,000 a maund.

Kamal Hossain, a wholesaler at Alipur fishing port, said: "We look to the fishermen, waiting for when they will come back from the sea with a trawler full of fish. But bad weather and bans all year round have wrecked our business. We send trawlers to sea with goods worth lakhs of taka, and within two or three days they come back ashore, unable to cope with the weather. It has been like this for the past month and a half without a break."

Professor Dr Rajib Sarkar of the Department of Fisheries Biology and Genetics, Faculty of Fisheries, Patuakhali Science and Technology University, said fishermen's hilsa catch and living standards at sea have changed a great deal. Climate change is altering the sea's patterns, and excessive plastic and polythene are destroying the seabed. The use of illegal nets has also reduced hilsa, and poor fishermen are suffering as a result. He said he hopes hilsa production will rise if the government takes effective steps to stop illegal net production and the indiscriminate use of plastic.

Apu Saha, senior upazila fisheries officer of Kalapara, said fishermen had started getting fish after the government's 58-day ban ended, but the rough weather has been a major obstacle. "We hope enough fish will be found once the bad weather passes," he said.

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