A source of cheap dietary protein for the vast population
Friday, 24 July 2009
Ehsanul Haque
Overfishing and pollution-related consequences is threatening the fish population worldwide. According to a recently-published report by an international team of ecologists and economists, a collapse of the marine food sources for humans may become inevitable due to such factors by as early as 2048.
The global trend has implications for Bangladesh, no doubt. But we need to be concerned to a greater degree because Bangladesh is the seventh biggest country in the world in terms of its population size. Fish is the main source of cheap dietary protein for the over 150 million Bangladeshis whose number would swell by another 30 or 40 million in the next couple of decades. Thus, the meeting of the basic nutritional needs of this vast population has a critical relationship with increasing fish supply when the supply of fish appears to be decreasing.
There was a time when several hundred species of sweet water fishes were found in this country. Many of these species have become extinct over time and many more seem threatened with extinction. High population growth, indiscriminate catching of fish fries, free passing of insecticides and pesticides into rivers and water bodies, other forms of human intervention in the wetlands or in the rivers where fishes naturally breed, etc., are the reasons for the dwindling down of some species of fish in number or extinction of others.
The people of Bangladesh are gradually getting interested in sea fishes. But unregulated discharge of pollutants in the coastal areas of Bangladesh by foreign ships and overfishing in our coastal areas by foreign fishing trawlers, are threatening the supply of sea fishes.
Thus, it is so important to adopt and implement a comprehensive policy to save and augment fish resources for meeting the consumption needs of the present and future population of the country. Inland fish breeding sources must be protected from pollution and the prohibition on catching of fish fries must be strictly enforced.
Planned fish breeding must be encouraged in the country's numerous active and derelict water bodies. Different credible studies led to the conclusion that the haor (lagoon or lake) areas in the Sylhet region alone can meet the country's demand for sweet water fishes and produce a surplus for export if planned fish-breeding is carried out in them.
Overfishing and pollution-related consequences is threatening the fish population worldwide. According to a recently-published report by an international team of ecologists and economists, a collapse of the marine food sources for humans may become inevitable due to such factors by as early as 2048.
The global trend has implications for Bangladesh, no doubt. But we need to be concerned to a greater degree because Bangladesh is the seventh biggest country in the world in terms of its population size. Fish is the main source of cheap dietary protein for the over 150 million Bangladeshis whose number would swell by another 30 or 40 million in the next couple of decades. Thus, the meeting of the basic nutritional needs of this vast population has a critical relationship with increasing fish supply when the supply of fish appears to be decreasing.
There was a time when several hundred species of sweet water fishes were found in this country. Many of these species have become extinct over time and many more seem threatened with extinction. High population growth, indiscriminate catching of fish fries, free passing of insecticides and pesticides into rivers and water bodies, other forms of human intervention in the wetlands or in the rivers where fishes naturally breed, etc., are the reasons for the dwindling down of some species of fish in number or extinction of others.
The people of Bangladesh are gradually getting interested in sea fishes. But unregulated discharge of pollutants in the coastal areas of Bangladesh by foreign ships and overfishing in our coastal areas by foreign fishing trawlers, are threatening the supply of sea fishes.
Thus, it is so important to adopt and implement a comprehensive policy to save and augment fish resources for meeting the consumption needs of the present and future population of the country. Inland fish breeding sources must be protected from pollution and the prohibition on catching of fish fries must be strictly enforced.
Planned fish breeding must be encouraged in the country's numerous active and derelict water bodies. Different credible studies led to the conclusion that the haor (lagoon or lake) areas in the Sylhet region alone can meet the country's demand for sweet water fishes and produce a surplus for export if planned fish-breeding is carried out in them.