1,000 tonnes of hilsa reach Chandpur ghat on first day, 70 percent small and soft, kilo-size fish at Tk 2,400

Fishing resumed in the Padma-Meghna in Chandpur after midnight on Thursday (29 October) as the 22-day ban ended. By morning, about 1,000 tonnes of hilsa had been brought for sale to the district's Bara Station fish ghat.

At 10am on Friday (30 October), about 1,000 tonnes of hilsa were seen being unloaded for sale at the Chandpur Bara Station fish ghat. About 70 percent of the fish, however, were small, soft and rotten.

People on the trucks and trawlers carrying the fish said they had brought the hilsa from Bhola and Hatiya in Noakhali by truck and fishing trawler since dawn. Traders and fishers declined to say who caught the fish or when.

Traders and fishers said the fish had been caught four to five days earlier. As the drive was under way at the time, the fish could not be sold anywhere, so they were kept buried in trawlers or in safe places. With the drive over, the fish were brought directly to the Chandpur ghat for sale.

Those fish sold at Tk 15,000 to Tk 16,000 per maund, which works out at Tk 375 to Tk 400 per kilogram.

Chandpur Matsya Bonik Samiti general secretary Shabe Barat said fishers brought about 1,000 tonnes of hilsa to the Chandpur ghat on Friday morning after the drive ended. Only 30 percent of it was Padma-Meghna hilsa from Chandpur; the remaining 70 percent came from Hatiya in Noakhali and Bhola.

He said the soft fish had been caught from rivers and the sea during the drive and stored somehow by fishers, because there is no supply of ice during the ban period.

Meanwhile, fishers who went back to the river after the 22-day ban caught a good amount of hilsa on the first day. Fisher Liton Tapadar caught Tk 12,000 worth of hilsa casting his net from night to dawn. He said he had caught slightly more hilsa than at other times, and if the catch continues this way the loans could be repaid within a few days.

Another fisher, Abul Kalam, went out with seven others at midnight on the Meghna. The hilsa caught in their net sold for Tk 15,000.

Chandpur ghat hilsa trader Akbar Hossain said a good amount of hilsa was caught on the first day after the ban. Kilo-size hilsa caught in the Padma-Meghna is priced at Tk 2,400 per kg, 800-900 gram fish at Tk 2,000 per kg, sea hilsa at Tk 1,500 per kg, and small 400-500 gram fish at Tk 600 per kg.