Following the 65 days of fishing ban most fishermen are now netting abundant fish in the sea making huge profits.
Fishermen who have returned to the Cox’s Bazar coast for the past two days have brought trawlers full of fish. Not only in Cox’s Bazar, similar scenario has been observed in other fish landing ports across the country.
According to our district correspondents, Barguna, Patuakhali, Bagerhat, Chandpur, and other fish landing ports are found enjoying festive mood as all the fishing trawlers are netting fish beyond their expectation. As a result, they are happy with their catching and selling price.
Some fishermen said that during the fishing ban they had a very hard time as the government aid was insufficient. However, as the restriction is now over, (since July 23) they are having huge hilsa fish with other fish. They are hopeful that they will have a good season which they were dreaming of.
A fishing boat called MV Araf-3 returned after three days with 4 tons of hilsa catch at Chairman Ghat in Hatiya which they have sold worth Tk 25.50 lakh.
Patharghata Fish Landing Centre official Biplab Kumar Sakar said that a total of 11,869 kilogram of fish was sold in the fish market of BFDC on the first day. Of the total, 7780 kg were hilsa fish. The total amount of fish sold was Tk 67.56 lakh.
As per the fishermen, a hilsa fish which weighted more than 2 kg is Tk 1,600, hilsa of 1 kg to 1.2 kg cost is Tk 1,000 to Tk 1200 and hilsa less than a kg price is Tk500 to TK 750. At present there are 6,000 registered fishermen in Cox’s Bazar of them 4,000 have gone to fishing in the sea.
Even though the hilsa netting has increased, the buyers have said that the price is still relatively too high. Many fish traders said that they have to buy hilsa at a higher price from the wholesale market. On Wednesday during a visit to the Karwan Bazaar showed that a larger quantity of fish had arrived in the market than at any other time. Hilsa fish of 600 gram to 700 gram size is being sold at an average of Tk 700 to Tk 800 per kg. In addition, hilsa fish of one to 1.5 kg is being sold for Tk 1,600 to Tk 1,800 taka per kg.
Traders said, they are buying hilsa from different landing point across the country but transportation, preservation and other costs are taking the hilsa price to a higher range.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on July 24 said that attention should be paid to the creation of fish sanctuaries. As fish is the safest resource of protein.
