Hilsa fishing will be banned across Bangladesh for 22 days, from 8 to 29 October, to protect spawning brood fish. While professional fishers prepare to roll up their nets, seasonal fishers on the Padma-Jamuna chars of Shibalaya upazila in Manikganj are openly building boats and buying nets so they can go out during the ban, Samakal reports. Residents say they have seen no sign of the administration acting yet.
Local sources count about 1,500 seasonal fishers around Dhala Malchi, Alokdia, Char Shibalaya, Jafarganj, Bagutia, Teota and Hemganj bazaar. They work at other jobs for the rest of the year. For about two weeks they have been buying nets; many have built new long, narrow boats fitted with motors, and others are tarring old ones. Hilsa sells freely along the riverbank during the ban, with the biggest market at Alokdia, and last year officials on a drive were attacked.
Aricha bazaar is the main outlet for current nets, the fine monofilament nets used to catch brood hilsa, which are sent on from there to the char markets. Five or six traders sell them, the paper found. One trader denied selling them himself but said current nets usually sell for Tk 1,200 to 1,400 a kilogram.
Ram Haldar, a professional fisher from Jafarganj, said professionals stay off the river during the ban but riverside seasonal fishers are readying new nets, ropes and boats. Some seasonal fishers, speaking anonymously, said they hear of raids before they happen. Upazila administration sources said influential people lobby to free detained fishers, and those released after a fine go back to the river.
Upazila fisheries office figures show that during last year's ban 22 mobile courts sat and 71 drives were carried out, with 49 fish depots and 139 markets inspected. Officials seized 287 kilograms of jatka (young hilsa) and 345,000 current nets; 14 fishers were jailed and Tk 211,000 in fines collected.
Upazila fisheries officer Sathi Rani Niyogi said no one would be allowed to catch brood hilsa this time. Despite a staff shortage, current nets and China duari trap nets worth about Tk 5 million were burnt in the past month, she said. Upazila nirbahi officer Monisha Rani Karmakar said drives would be strict, as every year. Residents believe that keeping detained fishers in custody and breaking up seized boats would cut fishing during the ban.
Photo: DelwarHossain / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Samakal
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