Amidst the severe weather, mother fish have laid eggs in the Halda River, the country's only natural fish breeding ground. Fishermen started collecting eggs in different parts of the river from midnight on Thursday.
Mother fish have laid eggs in Halda due to heavy rain. Continuous torrential rains since yesterday due to the influence of the cyclone, mother fish of the Rui, Katal and Mrigel species have laid eggs in Halda, the country's only natural fish breeding ground.
Carp mother fish laid eggs in the Halda River, the only natural fish breeding ground in the country. Egg collectors on both banks of the river collected eggs in a festive atmosphere. The mother fish started laying eggs in the river around 2 am on Thursday.
Later, the eggs spread to different parts of the Halda River. This information was confirmed by Raozan Upazila Senior Fisheries Officer Alamgir Hossain.
On Friday, egg collectors were seen collecting eggs of the river at various points including Madunaghat, Chailyakhali, Azimer Ghat, Sipahir Ghat, Khalifar Ghona, west Gahira Ankuri Ghona, Sonair Mukh, south Ghona, Mobarakkhil, Garduara, Napiter Ghat, Amtua and Ramdash Munshirhat, Machaghona, Nayahat.
It is known that more than seven hundred egg collectors collected eggs from the natural fish breeding ground of Halda in about four hundred boats. Some egg collectors got eggs in 3-5 buckets.
Egg collectors and experts say that due to the favorable environment of the river, when heavy thunderstorms and mountain floods descend from upstream at night, the mother fish release eggs in full swing in the river. Md. Idris, a senior egg collector in the Sipahi ghat area of the Halda River, said, "We have been in the river since Thursday afternoon. The mother fish laid eggs around 2 am. I have collected 2-3 buckets of eggs."
Earlier, Mahbubul Alam, an egg collector, said, "We collect eggs in 10 boats in the river. Each boat has an average of 2 to 2.5 buckets of eggs. There are eggs of Rui Katla, Mrigel and Kalibaus fish here." Md. Shafiul Alam, president of the Halda River Egg Collectors' Association, said, "We collected 13 buckets of eggs in 6 boats and 2 bamboo rafts." Dr. Md. Shafiqul Islam, a Halda researcher and Head and Assistant Professor of the Biology Department of Chittagong Cantonment Public College, said that during the night, the mother fish of the carp breed lay eggs in full force in the Amtua part of the Halda River. Later, the eggs spread to different parts of the Halda River. Those who were in the river to collect eggs at the beginning collected more eggs. Egg collectors collected eggs in 2-3 buckets on average.
The egg collectors were happy to collect the desired eggs. Raozan Upazila Senior Fisheries Officer Md. Alamgir Hossain said that the mother fish first released sample eggs in two phases in the Halda River.
On Thursday night, the mother fish of the carp species released eggs in full swing in the river. In the Raozan and Hathazari sections, 700 egg collectors collected eggs in about 400 boats in a festive atmosphere. The egg collectors are busy hatching the collected eggs in the hatchery.
