Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim said illegal attempts of catching hilsa fish will be prevented at any cost during the ban time.
“As the breeding period of hilsa approaches, none will be allowed to catch mother hilsa during the ban on fishing,” he said at a press briefing at his ministry office on Monday on the occasion of implementing the Mother Hilsa Conservation Campaign 2020, an official press release said.
No fishing boat will be allowed to catch fishes in the rivers where there is a possibility of finding mother hilsa, Rezaul added.
Apart from patrols of the river police and the Coast Guard, the sea and rivers will be monitored using digital means so that no boat or ship can catch hilsa, the minister said, adding that if any machine-driven fishing vessel comes from abroad, it will be seized following legal procedure.
Secretary of the Fisheries and Livestock Ministry Rawnak Mahmud, Additional Secretaries Shah Md Imdadul Haque, Subol Bose Moni and Shyamol Chandra Karmokar, Director General of Fisheries Department Quazi Shams Afroz and Director General of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute (BFRI) Dr Yahia Mahmud were present at the press conference among others.
The government is going to impose a 22-day ban on catching, selling, hoarding and transporting of hilsa from October 14 to November 4 to protect safe spawning of the fish during its peak breeding period.
