FisheriesFrom 1 November to 30 June 2027, catching, selling, transporting or storing hilsa under 10 inches is an offence; Patuakhali's 79,000 registered fishers will receive 40 kg of rice a month for four months.
FisheriesWriting in Down To Earth, Sarvesh JP of BOBP-IGO and Deepanjana Saha of ATREE say warming seas and saltier estuaries are keeping hilsa offshore, and that uncoordinated fishing bans let catches shift rather than fall.
FisheriesLate-season hilsa landings have lowered prices in Chandpur, but Department of Fisheries figures show two straight years of falling production, a 22 percent drop in the sea catch, and smaller fish with far fewer carrying eggs.
A trawler from Hatiya in Noakhali returned from six days in the Bay of Bengal with about 60 maunds of hilsa, auctioned in three rounds for nearly Tk 20 lakh at Chairman Ghat.
Between 100 and 150 maunds a day change hands at the Boro Station landing centre, yet a one-kilogram fish costs over Tk 3,000; a researcher blames silted chars in the Meghna estuary, pollution and current nets for the fish's retreat from fresh water.
CropsAt the closing workshop of a hilsa development project in Dhaka on 22 June 2026, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid said hilsa should be developed as an export resource through long-term, science-based planning.
CropsAfter nearly two decades of growth, Bangladesh's hilsa production fell from the 2022-23 fiscal year onwards and the average weight of the fish dropped too; fisheries officials and researchers blamed catches of juvenile fish, estuary fishing, silted rivers and pollution.
AgribusinessThe hilsa season had begun in June 2026, yet little hilsa reached Barishal's Port Road wholesale fish landing centre: on 2 June about 60 maunds arrived where some 1,000 were expected, and prices were high.
AgribusinessAbout 60 maunds of hilsa reached Barishal's Port Road wholesale market on 2 June 2026, against a thousand expected at that time, and one-kilogram fish sold for Tk 2,500 to 3,000 a kg. Traders blamed short supply; some buyers alleged a syndicate.
FisheriesOn 30 April 2026, the last day of a two-month ban on all fishing in the hilsa sanctuaries to protect jatka, fishers in Chandpur had mended their boats and nets and were waiting to go back to the Padma and Meghna at midnight.
FisheriesOn the night of 18 April 2026 the Coast Guard stopped two trucks under the Kanchpur bridge in Sonargaon, Narayanganj, and seized 2,200 kg of jatka and 3.7 crore illegal shrimp fry worth about Tk 2 crore. The fry were released into the Buriganga.
FisheriesFishers and local people on the Padma and Meghna in Chandpur alleged in April 2026 that jatka, young hilsa, was being caught and sold openly during the two-month sanctuary ban; the upazila fisheries office said 140 fishers had been detained in a month.
FisheriesPriced out of hilsa, a Rajshahi University department served sarpunti with panta for Pohela Boishakh 2026. In a Jagonews24 column, a professor there tied the switch to hilsa prices, inequality and food culture, in a month when hilsa output had hit an eight-year low.
