Fish scarcity puts fishermen in peril
Ishwardi (Pabna) Correspondent :
Fishermen are trying their hard in the Padma River day and night but do not catch the desired fish. Bacha, Prawn, Gangari, Bamboo, Piali, Kachki, Ritha, Ghere, Bele, Patashi fish were once caught in the fishermen’s nets. But now they are very little in quantity. The amount of fish being caught does not even meet the cost of the boat-net. After waiting patiently during the hilsa season, hilsa is not being caught in the net. Two or four hilsa may be caught by some fishermen. But they are small in size and weight. No other fish can be caught.
At Pakshi Hardinge Bridge Point, fishermen are returning to the wharf one by one after catching fish overnight. They are bringing the night catch for sale. Fishermen are disappointed with the fish caught overnight. Because selling this fish will not raise their income.
Milon Kumar of Pakshi Jele Palli said, this time there is no hilsa in Padma. Suddenly one or two are caught. Other fish also eat. Catching fish in the river day and night does not fetch more than 300-350 taka. Many people are not going to fish in the river due to heartache. Spending idle and idle time.
Ajit, a fisherman in the same area, said that he has been fishing in the river with his father and grandfather since childhood. I have never seen fish like this before. It cannot be explained that we are in trouble without getting fish.
Asit Mandal, a fisherman at ghat number 5 in Sara, said that 4-5 fishermen catch fish in a boat. After fishing for a whole day, the fishermen do not pay more than 250-300 taka after paying the diesel cost of boats, nets and shallow machines. Now the price of daily necessities, our family cannot survive with this money. As the fish crisis is increasing, at some point the fishermen will die of starvation.
Abul Kashem, President of Sara Matsya Cooperative Society, said that the number of fishermen in this ghat is about 500 people. Fishermen here catch different types of fish including hilsa. At present there is not much fishing. All night five fishermen are not able to catch even 5 kg of fish by pulling the net in the boat. But other times 15-20 kg of fish were caught overnight. Fishermen have never seen such hardship before.