A hilsa weighing 2.1 kilograms sold for Tk7,200 at Kuakata in Patuakhali. The fish went under the hammer at the Kuakata fish arat at around 9am on Wednesday, fetching Tk3,625 a kilogram.

The buyer was Mizan, manager of Kuakata Ma Moni Fish. He said he had bought the fish at auction and would send it to the home of an expatriate's brother in Shariatpur.

Fisherman Shoharaf Gazi netted the hilsa on Tuesday in deep sea near the Pipe Boya area off Payra port. He has fished the deep sea for about 10 years. By his account the fish sold at Tk145,000 a maund at auction.

That price is well beyond the ordinary buyer. Jamal Gharami, a local resident, said hilsa at Tk3,000 to Tk4,000 a kilogram is out of reach for low-income families: people who once managed the fish at least once a year now treat it as a dream.

Professor Dr Rajib Sarker of the fisheries department at Patuakhali Science and Technology University said large hilsa are becoming scarce because too many juveniles are caught, river flows have fallen, embankments and sluice gates block the fish's movement, illegal nets are in use and management committees are not doing their work. Water pollution, a shortage of plankton, climate change and shifting salinity are also affecting the fish's breeding and feeding, he said.

Patuakhali district fisheries officer Bijan Kumar Nandi called the catch good news and a possible dividend of the fishing bans. Large hilsa carry more fat, omega-3 and vitamins, he said, and wider-mesh nets would let more of them reach that size.

Source: Samakal (Kuakata, Patuakhali correspondent)