The minister for fisheries, livestock and agriculture has urged scientists to find ways to raise hilsa production and protect jatka so that the fish comes within reach of ordinary people.
A mobile court in Madaripur's Kalkini upazila seized 27 maunds of jatka, which were then distributed to 14 orphanages.
Opening Jatka Conservation Week, the minister for agriculture and fisheries said a strong farm sector was the key to a strong economy and that farmers' small loans had been waived.
A BFRI scientist says hilsa production has grown significantly in recent years, but keeping it up needs sustainable management, protection of mother hilsa and jatka, and cleaner, deeper rivers.
Hilsa production fell to 5 lakh tonnes in the 2024-25 fiscal year, the lowest in eight years, and the fisheries minister calls raising it a huge challenge.
The government will observe Jatka Conservation Week from 7 to 13 April in 20 hilsa-rich districts, the fisheries and livestock minister has announced.
After a long shortage, hilsa are again being caught at sea and in coastal rivers, but a fuel crisis is keeping many trawlers from going out.
The agriculture, fisheries and livestock minister has told officials to work closely together to prevent losses of the boro crop in the haor region.
A light curry of shrimp and bottle gourd leaves, cooked with few spices, makes a nutritious and easily digested dish for hot days.
With little surveillance in Barishal's hilsa sanctuaries, jatka are being caught almost openly, and no fisherman has been punished a month into the two-month ban.
Fisheries and Livestock State Minister Sultan Salahuddin Tuku said everyone must work together to protect hilsa, a national resource, as food aid was handed to fishers in Lakshmipur.
A task force detained 32 fishermen for catching jatka in the Padma-Meghna sanctuary in Chandpur, with regular cases filed against 26 of them.
With Bengali New Year about two weeks away, hilsa prices in Rajshahi have suddenly risen by Tk 300-400 a kg.
