A huge dolphin, locally known as Shushuk, has been caught in the net of a fisherman at Hurasagar river of Bera upazila in Pabna on Tuesday.
The endangered and near-extinct in the world, sweet-water mammal, also known as Ganges dolphin, weighs about 4,000 kilogramme (10 maunds).
On Tuesday morning, the nearly dead dolphin was sold secretly to a wholesale fish trader at C&B market of Bera.
The fisherman who caught the dolphin informed, like other days he put current net at Hurasagar river in Bera at night. In the morning when he went to lift the net, he watched a huge fish has been caught in the net. At first he thought the fish would be a large species of cat-fish but after lifting the net in cooperation with other fishermen he could see the fish was actually a large dolphin. Being entangled in the net, the Dolphin was nearly dead. However, he carried the fish to C&B wholesale market of Bera and sold that at Taka 6,000 to a fish trader.
While asked the hunting, killing and selling of endangered dolphin was a criminal act, the fisherman said, he knows it was banned to catch and sell the dolphin but, he questioned, what he could do when the dolphin was caught in his net.
He claimed, he did not hunt or fish the dolphin willingly and what was the necessity of a dolphin in the river? That (dolphin) does not do any benefit for human being.
The fish trader who purchased the dolphin at Taka 6,000 informed, requesting anonymity, that the meat of dolphin is usually not consumed by man but the oil derived from the fat of dolphin is used to prepare costly medicine. He further added, a litre of dolphin oil is sold at Taka 1,000.
