Country's sea-fish catch has increased sharply in recent times thanks to a good weather in the Bay of Bengal and victory over maritime dispute with India and Myanmar that brought a vast area under Bangladesh's fishing net, officials said.
The fine weather in the Bay since May last led to increase in supply of the protein-rich sea fishes in the local market.
Commercial fishing trawlers are involved in netting fish over the year as no major cyclonic storm hit Bangladesh.
According to the Marine Fisheries Department (MFD), Bangladesh has nearly 170 commercial fishing trawlers each having a capacity of more than 150 tonnes. They mainly catch white fish.
Fishermen need to stay on the sea for at least 10 days to catch different kinds of sea-fishes including tuna, lobsters, hilsha, chapila and others.
According to the MFD, marine catch increased to 0.606 million tonnes in FY'14 which was 0.58 million tonnes in FY'13.
The catch will increase further in the ongoing financial year as a huge quantity of fish has already been caught in first five months of the current financial year, an official at the Department of Fisheries (DoF) said.
He said they were expecting 0.65 million tonnes in the FY'15.
Assistant director of DoF Masud Ara Momi said Hilsha contributed nearly 60 per cent of the total sea catch.
She said total fish production in the country was a record 3.55 million tonnes in FY'14 of which sea fish accounts for 17 per cent.
Of the sea fish, Hilsha was 0.272 million tonnes, she said.
Owner of Seafood Bangladesh & Co, the online based first seafood supplier in the country Syed Mahatab Uddin Ahmed (Mizan) told the FE that the situation was awful in 2013 due to depression in the sea when cyclone Mahashen hit the coastal area.
"But the condition was satisfactory in 2014 as supply of chapila, tuna, lobster, red snapper fish, lakkha, rupchanda etc was good," he said.
"After wining the maritime verdict against India and Myanmar, the fishermen are now going into deep sea that also helps in good catch," he said.
"We got the highest ever big Tuna catch in Bangladesh a month back in the Bay which has been possible only for the accessibility of the fishermen to a vast area," he said.
However, many marine fish companies also claimed that over-fishing may cause plunge in production also.
Office secretary of Bangladesh Marine Fisheries Association, Md Ali Mortuza said the production scenario is not praiseworthy for the last few days.
He said over-fishing may be responsible for the condition, he said.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com
Sharp rise in country\\\'s sea-fish catch
Yasir Wardad | Published: January 13, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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