FisheriesHilsa output fell for a second year to 5 lakh tonnes in 2024-25 and the average fish has shrunk, researchers and Department of Fisheries officials told Jagonews24 in April 2026, blaming silted rivers, pollution, climate change and overfishing.
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.
A task force detained 32 fishermen for catching jatka in the Padma-Meghna sanctuary in Chandpur, with regular cases filed against 26 of them.
Built for speed in local coastal dockyards, the trawlers that carry fishermen to the hilsa grounds go through a long chain of craftsmen before they reach the sea.
All fishing is banned in hilsa sanctuaries including the Padma and Meghna in Chandpur from midnight on 28 February to 30 April to protect jatka.
Temporary bamboo barriers built across the Padma at Sadarpur in Faridpur are being used to catch hundreds of maunds of jatka, young hilsa, every day.
The hand-operated khuchin net, a centuries-old and eco-friendly way of fishing, is at risk of disappearing from Bangladesh's rivers.
The Buragauranga river in coastal Patuakhali is the centre of livelihoods, farming and culture for people along its banks, but it now faces erosion, encroachment and silting.
A hilsa weighing about 3kg, caught by a fisherman in the Arial Khan river at Bakerganj in Barishal, has been sold to a fish wholesaler for Tk 10,700.
The native fish crowding Dhaka's Dayaganj market come from wetlands that are drying up, and the people who catch them fear the trade has no future.
An eight-month nationwide ban on catching jatka, young hilsa under 25 centimetres, begins on 1 November and runs until 30 June.
A Patharghata trawler netted about 170 maunds of hilsa in one haul in the Bay of Bengal, passing some 30 maunds to another boat for lack of space.
