Big biz opens up as govt to allow long liners for Bay tuna catch

The government is set to allow 10 private long-liner operators to catch tuna and tuna-like species in deep sea at the Bay of Bengal to utilise marine resources.
The Fisheries Department has asked local entrepreneurs to apply for the licence under joint-venture with foreign companies having expertise in the area. The joint-venture initiative was designed to help local operators gain experience, technology and create skilled manpower in the sector.
This is the first time Bangladesh is allowing long-liners at the Bay of Bengal above 200 metre depth at Exclusive Economic Zone, officials said.
However, the Fisheries Department issued an advertisement in newspapers for the second time, as only one entrepreneur has showed interest to get licence after the first ad issued two months ago.
"We are happy that this time seven experienced local entrepreneurs of the sector have already showed interest, we hope there will be more companies before the deadline ends," said Ferdous Ahmed, Deputy Chief (Sea) of the Department of Fisheries.
He said though there are no estimates on how much catch of tuna and tuna-like species would be at the Bay since this is the first-ever initiative.
Long-line fishing is a commercial fishing technique. It uses a long-line, called the main line, with baited hooks attached at intervals by means of branch lines called snoods.
A snood is a short length of line, attached to the main line using a clip or swivel, with the hook on the other end. Long lines are classified mainly by where they are placed in the water column. This can be at the surface or at the bottom.
Industrial tuna long liners are usually large vessel with length ranging between 30 and 70 metres.
The basic requirements of a tuna long-liner, industrial type, are: adequate speed to reach far away fishing grounds, enough autonomy (fuel, water, accommodation of crew etc), capacity for operating in the high sea (sometimes very rough seas at cold temperature), facility for very efficient freezing storage (to attain extremely cold temperature under 45°C) to keep the highly valued tuna for months together, suitable deck arrangement and equipment, protection of crew from rough weather and sea conditions, machinery for shooting and hauling up longlines quickly and proper storage facilities for keeping the fishing gears and accessories.
These large specialised vessels can stay away from their home ports for 10-24 months.
Mr Ahmed said the country's inability to have access to the deep sea for fishing only adds to the frustration. Deep sea fishing is a big business, but the country's wooden boats or trawlers can fish within 20 sqkm (square kilometre) and 40 sqkm respectively.
Contacted, M Shahadat Hossain, Director of Institute of Marine Science and Fisheries at the University of Chittagong, said Bangladesh has recently got membership at Institute of Marine Sciences and Fisheries Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).
"After getting this membership, Bangladesh is eligible for catching Tuna and Tuna-like species from the Bay of Bengal coast to deep Indian Ocean," he said.
Tuna fish varieties include skipjack, bigeye bonitos, mackerels, and Spanish mackerels. Other important tuna-like species include slender Tuna, butterfly kingfish, wahoo, bonitos, Sarda, Spanish, king mackerels, seer fish and sierra etc.
Bangladesh secured sovereign rights over more than 118,000 sq km of maritime territory, 200 nautical miles (NM) of exclusive economic zone, and 354 NM of continental shelf after the verdict in the court, which resolved the boundary disputes with neighbouring Myanmar and India.
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