AgribusinessOn 29 October 2025 the consumer rights directorate seized 350 kg of rotten hilsa from a trawler from Monpura in Chandpur, buried the fish and fined the trawler's owner Tk 1 lakh.
Large quantities of soft and rotten hilsa, caught in secret during the ban to protect mother hilsa, have been landed at Chandpur's fish ghat since the ban ended.
Barishal division's peak-season hilsa catch fell 23 percent from last year to 79,310 tonnes, the lowest in four years, amid overfishing and silted rivers.
Although the hilsa ban has ended, Patuakhali's markets have little hilsa and high prices, and fishermen say their nets are coming up almost empty.
Fishermen landed thousands of hilsa at Patuakhali's Alipur-Mohipur on the morning the 22-day ban ended, though much of the catch had rotted because ice plants were closed.
River police arrested 3,173 people and seized 1,221 vessels during the 22-day nationwide drive to protect breeding hilsa.
Bhola's fishermen say they are catching koral, pangas and poa but little hilsa since the ban ended, while the district fisheries officer says catches meet hopes.
Chandpur's fishermen found little hilsa on the first day after the 22-day ban, but large river pangas filled the Boro Station landing and cheered them.
A 2.5 kg hilsa caught in the Bay of Bengal by a Bhola fisherman fetched Tk 9,200 at auction at Matirhat fish landing in Lakshmipur.
Jhalakathi's fishermen returned to the rivers at midnight on 25 October after the 22-day hilsa ban, many carrying debts taken on to survive the closure.
Chandpur's fishermen went back to the rivers after the 22-day ban to protect mother hilsa, but caught little hilsa on the first day and prices stayed high.
On the last day of the hilsa conservation drive, a joint team in Pirojpur's Nesarabad detained 20 fishermen and burned seized current nets.
A mobile court in Kawkhali, Pirojpur, jailed five fishermen for catching hilsa in the final hours of the ban.
