A hilsa weighing 1 kg 900 g has sold for Tk 6,650 at the Mohipur fish landing centre in Kalapara upazila of Patuakhali. A buyer named Sourav bought it at Tk 3,500 a kilogram.

Boatman Asadul Islam said the fish was caught last Thursday in the net of a fishing trawler, FB Junaid, near the last buoy of Payra port. He brought it to Mohipur market on Saturday morning, and it was sold through the Mayer Doa fish wholesale house (arat) at Mohipur.

People in the trade say buyers are always keen on large hilsa, and a fish of two kilograms or more draws particular attention when it reaches the market. Local fish trader Kawsar Hossain said two-kilogram hilsa are rarely seen, and this one drew a crowd of curious buyers.

Kalapara upazila senior fisheries officer Md Zahirun Nabi said hilsa grow quickly when they find enough food and favourable conditions at sea. Catching large hilsa, he said, may be a sign that the breeding and growth of marine hilsa are continuing.

Md Bakhtiar Rahman, a research assistant with the 'Sustho Sagar' (Healthy Sea) project run jointly by WCS and WorldFish with funding from the Blue Action Fund, urged caution. A two-kilogram hilsa shows that large fish are present, he said, but judging their abundance or the overall state of the fishery needs regular data collection and scientific analysis.

For fishers a large hilsa means extra income, and it also matters for monitoring how production and growth are going, the fisheries officer said. He stressed that the government's fishing bans and the fisheries management rules must be followed properly to protect hilsa breeding.

This report is based on information from Prothom Alo's Kalapara (Patuakhali) correspondent.

Photo: Mamun2a / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)

Source: Prothom Alo