Shoals of silver hilsa are being caught off Saint Martin's. Each fish weighs one and a half to two kg, and a kg of hilsa sells for Tk 2,000.

More than 100 maunds of hilsa have been caught over the past two days, including Wednesday 6 August.

Fishermen and traders said that a week ago, fishermen at Saint Martin's could not go to sea because of rough weather. When conditions returned to normal, they took their trawlers out, and shoals of hilsa are being caught in their nets. A hilsa of 1 kg sells for Tk 1,800, and fish of more than 2 kg sell at Tk 2,000 a kg.

Trawler owner Hafez Ahmed said: "When the fishermen took the trawler out to sea, they caught shoals of hilsa, each weighing about one and a half to two kg. The fish were sold together to traders for Tk 2.5 lakh."

Foyezul Islam, acting chairman of Saint Martin's union, said: "There is joy among the trawler owners and fishermen. This is very good news. I have heard that in two days trawler owners have got an estimated more than 100 maunds of silver hilsa."

Md Delwar Hossain, the Teknaf upazila fisheries officer, said: "Silver hilsa of more than one kg is very tasty. Since big sea hilsa are now being caught in fishermen's nets, they will taste good too."

He added: "Fishermen are reaping the benefit because they observed the government's 65-day restriction during the hilsa breeding season."

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