Experts suggest immediate survey, safeguards against intruders

Shamsul Huda | Published: July 13, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Experts suggest immediate survey to make an inventory of marine resources in the country's vast territorial waters now secured in the Bay of Bengal, especially for identifying sustainable fishing grounds with safeguards against poaching by foreign trawler crews.Â Â Â Â Â
Sending gaggles of fishing-trawlers without conducting survey to map out the potential may prove waste of time and money, they said.
According to registered trawler owners, currently increasing numbers of trawlers and ships are doing excessive fishing in a limited area -- thereby creating a crisis through over-fishing.
The owners said more than three hundred trawlers and ships are fishing in the bay waters and over two hundred of them are not registered but do it being armed with court orders.
A Rouf Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Marine Fisheries Association (BMFA), said the number of registered trawlers fishing in the bay is seventy.
He said those who are not registered with the ministry of fisheries have collected court orders and are fishing with different malpractices and violating the government rules.
He informed the unregistered ships source fuel from boats and ships of Myanmar and Thailand at lower prices as their fuel costs are lower than in Bangladesh.
Due to high oil prices and having no government- marked channels for fishing the unregistered trawlers and ships use different countries' territories to trespass upon the bay, a fishing-trawler source said.
The BMFA president said some trawler owners even bring fishes from Myanmar and Thailand under processing and export licences but they sell them on the local market.
As a result of high fuel costs at home and availability of low-price fishes from neighbouring countries, the domestic fishmongers face unfair competition with the unregistered trawler and ship owners.
Besides, he said, every year the government under political influence is giving approval for new trawlers though there is saturated and over-fishing in a limited area of the bay.
Now that Bangladesh has got a vast swathe of maritime territories, Mr. Chowdhury said, it has created new opportunities for fishing in the bay if new fish-abound areas are identified.
Bangladesh has obtained ownership on an expanded exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal through verdicts of international arbitration on disputes put up over bay areas by Myanmar and India.Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
According to BMFA estimation every year more than Tk 5.0 billion worth of processed and unprocessed sea fishes are exported from the country.
Another fishing-trawler owner said using the extended new territories it is now possible to enhance exports three times.
And the frozen fishes have the prospect to be rated as second-largest export products after readymade garments.
As per the BMFA office data there are more than sixty hatcheries in Chittagong and the collected fish fry are kept in the hatcheries. After few days, the fishes are going to fish farms in Khulna by helicopters.
Another senior office bearer in the BMFA said, "We need to explore new areas for sustainable fishing. Otherwise, it would involve huge financial loses."
He noted that for the vast Bangladesh emerging over the Bay of Bengal it is now a great opportunity for both direct and indirect fishing and it is possible to enhance export at least three times the current volume.
He said the government by using its marine forces can conduct survey in the new area to determine viability of investment by fish exporters and other investors.