Two days after the last one, another big hilsa has been caught off Kuakata. The fish, weighing 1kg 700g, was caught in the net of a fisherman named Nasir Majhi in the Gangamati area of the Bay of Bengal near Kuakata in Patuakhali. The report's opening gives its price as Tk 5,000; at auction it sold for Tk 5,170.

The hilsa came up when he hauled in his net at sea on the morning of Sunday 17 August. When he took it to the Kuakata Mayor Bazar, local trader Chhagir Hossain bought it at auction for Tk 5,170.

The fish was sold through bidding at a rate of Tk 1.2 lakh a maund, bringing Tk 5,170. Fish trader Chhagir Hossain will take it to Dhaka to sell. He said hilsa this big are now caught very rarely.

Fisherman Nasir Majhi said he had got only this one fish on the trawler that day. There are very few big hilsa in the sea, he said, but because the fish he caught was large, he sold it for a high price. Even without catching many fish, he was happy with what Allah had given.

Apu Saha, senior fisheries officer of Kalapara upazila, said big hilsa bring good news for fishermen. Along with deep-sea fishermen, coastal fishermen are now also getting big hilsa, he said. The amount of hilsa is increasing day by day, and he hoped it would rise further in the coming days, when prices would come down more.

Earlier, on 14 August, a fisherman named Sunu Gazi caught a hilsa weighing one kilogram 800 grams and brought it to the same market, and sold it for Tk 5,625.

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