The government will conduct a survey to ascertain the reserve of marine fisheries in the Bay of Bengal from November next, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque told Parliament on Thursday.
A survey ship, ‘RV Meen Shandhani’ equipped with the latest technology, reached Chittagong from Malaysia on June 9 last, he said replying to an un-starred question from Awami League MP Nizam Uddin Hazari (Feni-2). “As the ship arrived, initiative will be taken to carry out the survey on fisheries resources during normal weather from November 2016,” the minister told the House. The survey on both floating and underwater fisheries resources will be implemented fully in phases, he said.
He said there has been no full-fledged survey on marine fisheries resources after 1973 in Bangladesh. But there had been some isolated surveys in 1978-79, 1981-83, 1983-87, 1984-85 and 1983-85, he said.
In 1973, the first full-fledged survey on marine fisheries was conducted with the help of Russia, the minister added. The government procured the ship at cost of Tk 650 million for pelagic and land-based surveys to ascertain the reserve of marine fisheries and other resources. In reply to a tabled starred question from AL MP Pinu Khan (Reserved Seat-23), the minister said the country’s fish production rose to 36.84 lakh metric tonnes in 2014-15 fiscal from 27.01 lakh metric tonnes in 2008-09 fiscal. But the country’s demand for fish is 40.55 lakh metric tonnes, he added. Responding to another starred question from AL MP Kazi Keramat Ali (Rajbari-1), the fisheries and livestock minister said the work for designing a project is underway to enhance hilsa production in the Padma River and other rivers connected with it.
The hilsa production increased to 3.87 lakh tonnes in 2014-2015 from 2.99 lakh tonnes in 2008-2009, Sayedul Hoque said.
