BSS, Rajshahi :
Fisheries officers at a view-sharing meeting have asked the field level officials and staff concerned to protect the brood hilsha fish from further degradation in the mighty Padma river.
They said the fishermen must refrain themselves from fishing during the period banned for fishing. Thereby, plenty of fries and juveniles of other fishes may be found in and around the spawning ground areas indicating a positive impact of fishing ban on their successful reproduction.
The hilsha fishery was declining tremendously over the last decades for increasing fishing pressure and environmental degradation from the inland open water although the total marine production remains more or less static.
Department of Fisheries organized the meeting at its conference hall in the city yesterday where all the divisional, district and upazila level officials and others concerned attended.
The meeting evaluated and assessed the programme of the eleven days of fishing ban on breeding success of hilsha in the major spawning grounds of the fish from October 5 to 15 in the district.
With District Fisheries Officer Golam Rabbani in the chair, Deputy Director Mahbub-ul-Alam and Assistant Director Saidur Rahman addressed the meeting.
Upazila Fisheries Officers Shahed Ali, Khalequzzaman Sarker, Omor Ali and Farjana Hossain presented their respective reports of various programmes executed in Godagari, Paba, Charghat and Bagha Upazilas.
The speakers hoped that jatka fry, fries of other fishes may be found in plenty in the spawning grounds and adjacent areas and thus it is assumed that fishing ban had some positive impact on the successful breeding of other fishes.
The fishing ban was found effective for successful breeding of hilsha. The impact of 11 days fishing ban on breeding success of other fishes needs to be assessed properly.
The fishing ban should be continued for sustainable reproduction of hilsha and increase of jatka as well as hilsha production, they added.
There is a need for conducting comparative study to show that 11 days fishing ban during spawning seasons had significant impact in the successful reproduction of hilsha.
