The government plans to create skilled manpower for exploring more fish resources in the Bay of Bengal.
In a new initiative the government plans to explore and catch tuna fish which has vast opportunities for domestic consumption as well as exporting.
A project proposal will be placed before the Ecnec meeting today (Tuesday) in this regard including purchasing special vessels to catch tuna from the deep sea, an official of Planning Commission said.
He said, “It has been planned to catch tuna fish from the deep sea for the first time.”
The Department of Fisheries is planning to buy a few modern vessels to further increase fish production in the country, he mentioned.
“Through such initiative deep sea tuna fishing will be introduced in the Bay,” he said adding that a pilot project to catch tuna and similar fish belonging to mackerel family in the deep sea is being undertaken. The proposed cost of the project is Tk 61.06 crore.
The project will be presented for final approval at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) today.
If approved, the project will be implemented between this month (August) and December 2023.
Under the project, private investment will be encouraged in verifying and procuring availability of tuna and homogeneous fish in deep sea and international waters.
It also aims to gain knowledge and experience by catching tuna and homogeneous fish in the deep sea.
In this case, trained and skilled manpower will be created.
Zakir Hossain Akand, a Member of the Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Institution Division under the Planning Commission, said, "We have conquered the vast sea. The government has taken various initiatives to explore the rich resources that lie in the sea.”
In that continuity, a project has been taken up to catch tuna fish in the deep sea, he said adding that, the project will be presented at the ECNEC meeting today.
Ramzan Ali, Additional Director General (Fisheries Inspection and Quality Control) of the same department said, “Fish production in the country will be further increased in the future. For this, we are going to undertake several projects.”
At present the amount of domestic sweet water fish production is quite high, he said adding that marine fish is produced from only near the coastal areas.
He informed, “We are now thinking about officially extracting tuna from the deep sea. This will further increase the total fish production in the country.”
“Through the implementation of the project, we hope that one day people in Bangladesh will also get habituated in eating tuna and prepare the fish as a major dish like the popular hilsa,” Ali added.
However, at present, the amount of fish produced in the country is 42.77 lakh metric tons.
Of this, total domestic fish catch is 36.22 lakh metric tons and coastal marine fish catch is 6.55 lakh metric tons.
Bangladesh is 5th in the world in fish production. Bangladesh is after India, Indonesia, China and Vietnam.
If tuna is extracted from the deep sea, the position of Bangladesh will rise even higher.
