A festive mood prevails among 38,000 fishermen in Barguna as they are now ready to catch hilsa as the government lifted the ban on hilsa fishing on Wednesday.
Hundreds of fishing trawlers that remained anchored on the rivers across the district due to the 22-day ban, will now began fishing on the rivers and the Bay of Bengal as well. On spot visits to the district’s Patharghata and Taltali on Tuesday, fishermen were seen busy in taking preparations to set sail and completing their ancillary work to make their journey. Fishermen were seen borrowing nets and fishing equipment in their own trawlers, buying daily essentials including rice, pulses and oil from local grocery stores.
According to the District Fisheries Office, some 38,254 registered fishermen in Barguna district received 20 kg of rice each during the ban.
Meantime, mobile courts jailed five people for 7 days, realised Tk 36,000 as fine and destroyed illegal fishing nets worth around Tk 1.69 crore for defying the ban.
Chowdhury Golam Mostafa, president of the Barguna District Trawler Owners' Committee, said fishermen received only 20 kg of rice each and their families passed a hard time during the ban. Now, a cheerful mood appears in the fishermen’s villages since they will start catching hilsa in the sea and river, he added.
