A single fishing trawler has landed about 80 maunds of hilsa at the Alipur-Mohipur fish port in Kalapara, Patuakhali. The large catch after a long time has brought joy and fresh hope to fishers and traders. The fish were sold at auction at Sifat Fish in Alipur for about Tk 20 lakh.

The trawler returned to the port with the hilsa late on the afternoon of Wednesday, 26 August, and the catch was auctioned at Sifat Fish that night. Those involved said most of the fish were relatively small.

The trawler, FB Abdullah, had set out for the deep sea four days earlier with 18 fishers under skipper Badsha. After two days of fishing, the large haul came up in their nets in deep water near the last buoy of Payra port.

"For a long time we had not seen hilsa at sea the way we do in a big season. Suddenly yesterday we caught about 80 to 90 maunds. The fish were fairly small, but we were happy to get so many at once. We brought them to Alipur and sold them for about Tk 20 lakh," skipper Badsha said.

Md Mizanur Rahman, a wholesaler at the Alipur fish landing centre, said hilsa had become more plentiful at sea after a long time, with several trawlers bringing in good catches over the past few days, which had brought relief to fishers and traders. If the weather stays favourable and more hilsa move in the sea, bigger consignments could follow, boosting business at the fish port.

Apu Saha, senior upazila fisheries officer of Kalapara, said there had been a shortage of hilsa at sea for some time because of the effects of climate change. Fishers are now catching hilsa in shoals, and if it rains even more may be caught, benefiting fishers, wholesalers, traders and everyone in the fisheries sector.

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