Even after 54 years of independence, Bangladesh has not yet been able to conduct any survey on marine resources beyond a depth of 100 meters. According to a report published in an English local daily on Friday, scientists of the department of Oceanography and institute of Marine Research at Chattogram University do not have access to in-depth research. As a result, oil and gas, as well as other valuable minerals lying on the seabed, cannot be extracted.
The university lacks the capacity to explore these wealth. This information has been revealed by sources from the Bangladesh Oceanography Research Institute and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral resources.
Sad to say, the entire Blue Economy is still an elusive concept so far for Bangladesh. It has not been able to tap into much wealth as was expected, except fish and salt from the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh catches only about 08 million tonnes of sea fish every year from the Bay by regional pirates unlawfully catching fish. After the settlement of sea boundary with India, Bangladesh has acquired two types of resources in the field of Blue Economy- one is animal, the other is non-animal. Animals include fish resources, marine animals like shellfish, octopus, shark. There are about 500 species of fish in the sea. There are 36 species of shrimp, 20 species of crabs and 336 species of snails and oysters. Weeds are there from which medicine can be made by processing. Spirulina is highly valuable among sea weeds.
Inorganic source include 17 types of important mineral sands. Zircon, rotyle, sillymanite, ilmenite, magnetite, garnet, kyanite, monazite, lyclocine etc. are there on the sea bed.
Monazite is a very important mineral. There is a lot of clay suitable for making cement; but Bangladesh has not been able to utilize any of these. Bangladesh does not have the technology to extract the heavy and precious metals found on the deep seabed.
Multi-dimensional surveys have shown the possibility of gas in the sea. Extractable gas reserves cannot be discovered without drilling exploration well. But so far, no wells have been drilled in the deep sea. However, India and Myanmar have found gas in the same sea.
Experts opine that we are able to utilize only about 10 percent of sea potentials due to lack of capacity and advanced research. It is learnt that the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock took up a pilot project for harvesting larger fish in 2020. Although plans to procure three long-liner fishing vessels are in the process to catch tuna fish, but they are yet to arrive. India and Sri Lanka, taking this advantage, are infiltrating deep waters and catching a plenty of fish while Bangladesh is losing its valuable resources. We hope, Bangladesh will soon devise ways to harness living and non-living resources of the sea from the coast of Chattogram to 354 nautical miles through advanced research and technology.
