At the very start of the season, fishers at Namkhana in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district are again netting hilsa by the tonne.

On Wednesday morning (31 July), local fishers' trawlers entered Namkhana fishing harbour with about 10 tonnes of hilsa. This season, hilsa-laden trawlers have come into Namkhana after Diamond Harbour and Digha. More trawlers are still fishing in the deep sea, and fishers at the harbour hope hilsa have been caught in those too. Such a large catch this season has brought smiles to the fishers' faces.

Namkhana fishers who brought in the hilsa said the weather is favourable at the moment, so they hope more hilsa will be caught in the coming days. The remaining trawlers will return to Namkhana within a few days, and they are expected to be full of hilsa as well.

With so much hilsa being caught, fishers' organisations hope that hilsa prices in the wholesale and retail markets will stay within reach of ordinary people this time. The central and state governments had imposed a ban on sea fishing for about a month, which ended on 15 June.

Sudhir Das, a fisher at Namkhana harbour, said the fish caught are a good size and he expects a good price.

Fishers' organisations say the news coming in suggests large amounts of hilsa will be caught in the next few days. Satinath Patra, secretary of the fishing workers' union there, said: "We have news that the trawlers now returning also have plenty of hilsa. With so much hilsa caught, market supply will rise, so prices will stay within reach of ordinary buyers."

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