Local fishing cos expect rise in turnover

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Jubair Hasan and Yasir Wardad
Leading local fishing firms are eyeing turnover worth millions of dollar in their business following the landmark maritime boundary victory against Myanmar.
Terming the extended zone, awarded to Bangladesh in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) verdict, as golden treasure, they said there are immense possibilities to catch high-valued fishes from the sea area.
As a result, the nation can be turned into one of the top fish exporters of the world after execution of the verdict.
They said various high-valued fishes, like Yellow fin Tunafish, Swordfish, Black Marlin, Toadfish, Mackerel, Sardine Fish (Pilchards), Rupchanda and Hilsa etc, might be caught from the Bay of Bengal.
Tuna fish is one of the world's most expensive fishes. Export price of per tonne Tuna is about $6,750, and Yellowfin Tuna of the Bay of Bengal has high demand across the globe, according to Washington-based Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS).
"Definitely, our turnover can be doubled or even more … following the verdict, as the extended area is the main fishing zone in the Bay," a top executive of a leading fishing company in Chittagong said.
Bangladesh won the ITLOS verdict on March 13, which sustained its claim to 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Apart from this, the EEZ will comprise of additional 260 nautical miles, popularly known as the 'continental shelf', where most of the fish sanctuaries are located.
However, local fishing firms do not have the capacity and technology to catch the high-priced sea-fishes, as they can not catch fish beyond 200 meter deep.
"If we want to catch the high-valued fishes, we need to go down at least 500 meters deep. It's not possible with our existing fishing technology," said vice-president of Bangladesh Marine Fisheries Association Manowarul Haque.
According to the association, three new companies have recently become the members of the body, and several others are on the process to be its members.
Currently, Bangladeshi fishing trawlers catch fishes from six fishing grounds in the Bay. The points are Elephant Point, Kohinoor, West of Kohinoor, Middle Point, Swatch Point, and Swatch of No Ground.
Owners of some private sea-fishing firm said India and Myanmar confined Bangladesh within 130 nautical miles, not allowing the country into its claimed 200 nautical miles of EEZ before the verdict.
"That's why we had no access into the sea-fish sanctuaries, where the high-valued fishes are available," said Mohammad Shahjalal, managing director of North Bay Fishing.
"The recent verdict of course will offer us a significant financial gain, and the government should take immediate measures to protect the exclusive fish sanctuaries," he added.
Nearly 20 per cent additional sea-fishes can be caught from the areas, he added.
The Bay of Bengal contributes 0.6 million tonnes of fish that accounted for 20 per cent of the country's total fish collection of 3.0 million tonnes, according to the Department of Fisheries (DoF). Industrial marine fish contributes only 5.0 per cent of the total marine fishing.
Managing director of Sea Fishers Limited Amanullah Chowdhury told the FE that different varieties of high-priced fishes can be caught from the deep sea.
"It'll definitely put a positive impact on our economy in the coming days."
He said the government should not allow any licence for fishing in the Bay before conducting an extensive survey on how much trawlers will be economically viable against the existing fishery resources there.
The conglomerate of Sea Fishers Limited and Deep Sea Fishers Limited is the country's leading fishing firm, which earned $3.5 million by exporting fish in 2011.
The firm started its journey in 1982 with two trawlers. Now it has 15 trawlers, and on an average monthly collects 100 tonnes of fishes, like Cuttlefish, Tongue Sole, Kawa Fish and Aila Fish.
Talking to the FE, Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas said the government will purchase a survey vessel within the next 12 months to explore the untapped resources in the sea.
The minister also expressed his optimism that sea-fishes can dominate the country's export list in the coming days by earning a substantial amount of foreign currency.
According to the Department of Sea Fisheries Bangladesh (DoSF), fishing trawlers collected 49,000 tonnes of fishes from the deep sea in the 2010-11 fiscal year.
In the sea, 140 trawlers are operating legally, out of the total of 180, which caught 40,000 tonnes of fishes during the July-January period of the present fiscal (2011-12).
Prof Dr Mostafa Ali Reza Hossain of the Department of Fisheries Biology and Genetics at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) said the government has to remain alert for protecting its sea-fishing grounds.
He also pointed out that the country's universities should open oceanology in their curriculum to produce researchers, who can take the challenge of properly utilising the sea, heavily enriched with resources.
"It's tough to establish our claim in the sea than wining the verdict, the claim needs to be established over sea-territory to boost fish collection and other sea resources," he added.
The global fish export volume is nearly $100 billion, of which the Asian countries accounted for $34-35 billion. Of the volume, China fetched $12 billion, followed by Thailand $6.5 billion, Vietnam $4.0 billion, India $1.7 billion, Indonesia $2.0 billion, and Bangladesh fetched $0.6 billion in the fiscal 2010-2011.