The government has imposed a 10-day ban from today on netting hilsa in the coastal areas to create a disturbance free breeding environment for mother fish during this peak season.
“The highest number of hilsa releases eggs during this period. To increase production of national fish, we are slapping the ban.”
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas said this at a press conference at the Department of Fisheries in the capital yesterday.
Some most important hilsa spawning grounds include 21 upazilas in Bhola, Patuakhali, Laxmipur, Noakhali, Feni, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar districts covering 7,000 square kilometre areas.
The ban is part of the government plan that include creating mass awareness against netting of mother fish and conducting surveys on hilsa breeding.
Hilsa production stood around 3.13 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, which was 2.98 lakh tonnes in the previous fiscal year, the minister said.
Bangladesh earned Tk 125 crore in foreign exchange by exporting hilsa in the last fiscal year and the amount would be nearly 350 crore this year, he said.
“We strongly prohibited catching of jatka hilsa fry. We are also providing alternative employments to the fishermen who depend on fishing only,” Biswas said.
Between February and May last fiscal year, the government provided 19,768.6 tonnes of rice to 1,64,740 fishermen families, which resulted in increase of fish production this year, the minister noted.
There is a plan to enlist all the fishermen and provide them with identity cards so that they all can be brought under safety net programmes, Biswas said.
“We want the fishermen not to catch jatka and mother fish. If anyone disobeys, he will be punished as per the law,” he said.
