FisheriesBuyers crowded Kalapara, Alipur, Mohipur, Chapli and other markets after dark; a 1 kg hilsa fetched Tk 2,500-2,600, and 459.10 tonnes of rice is allotted for the upazila's 18,364 registered fishers.
FisheriesThe fish from fisher Sohel Khan's stake net near Banglar Ghat went for Tk 1.45 lakh a maund; a fisheries scientist at Patuakhali Science and Technology University explains why big hilsa are becoming scarce.
EnvironmentThe Forest Department says 10 to 11-year-old keora, gewa and baen trees were pulled up in its 75-hectare South Char Biswas mangrove plantation and embankments dug across about 200 acres; it has filed a general diary.
About 50 students, teachers and staff at a secondary school in Kalapara, Patuakhali, fell ill with convulsions and breathlessness; the hospital doctor described it as hysteria, a psychological condition.
Daily lifeFourteen production wells supply 10,332 cubic metres a day to 9,482 customers; with the water table falling and old tube wells dead, new wells, tanks and pipelines have been proposed.
FisheriesWith fewer roe-bearing hilsa caught this season, the price of fresh roe has nearly doubled in a year; salted roe sells for Tk 3,000-4,000 a kg.
FisheriesResearchers say silt and submerged shoals building up in upstream rivers after dredging of the Rabnabad channel for Payra port are blocking hilsa migration; the catch has fallen year after year since the 2022-23 record.
Patuakhali Science and Technology University has opened two labs using fluorescence fingerprinting and chemometrics to check the freshness, adulteration and microplastic content of fish and seafood in seconds to minutes.
FisheriesA hilsa of almost two kilograms, caught by a trawler near the last buoy of Payra port, sold at Mohipur market for Tk 3,500 a kilogram.
The MB Mayer Doa-6, a trawler built this year at a cost of about Tk 55 lakh, split its hull in rough seas some 45 km out from Alipur fishing port in Patuakhali; another trawler picked up its 15 fishermen, but the boat has not been found.
With catches already poor in rivers and the sea, a Tk 20-a-litre rise in diesel, kerosene and other fuels has deepened losses for about 70,000 registered fishermen and fish traders on the Patuakhali coast.
With signal No. 3 hoisted for a low-pressure system in the Bay of Bengal, hundreds of trawlers from across the coast have taken shelter at the Alipur and Mahipur fish landing centres in Patuakhali, and fishermen back from the 65-day ban are losing money ashore.
Eighteen fishermen stranded on a disabled trawler near Sonarchar in Rangabali, Patuakhali, were rescued unhurt on Thursday morning by a trawler their relatives sent.
