The government has imposed a 65-day ban on netting of all sorts of fish on a 200-nautical-mile area at the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Bay of Bengal from May 20. The ban will continue till July 23. In order to safeguard the country’s fishermen during the fishing restriction period the government has allotted 36,000 tonnes of rice.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock imposed the ban in a bid to protect breeding and conservation ground of mother fish and shrimps to ensure safe spawning of fish during their peak breeding period. This will also help in boosting country’s marine fish stock. A total of 4,14,784 fishermen families of 42 costal upazilas under 12 districts do not have any additional earning sources. To assist them, the government is distributing the rice among fishermen under the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) project.
‘Each month the fishermen will get 40 kilograms of rice, and the process will begin before the Eid-ul-Fitr. Besides the ministry has also planned to increase the amount to Tk 225 for VGF programme in next budget’- State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru made this comment on Wednesday.
He was speaking at a press briefing at his secretariat office in the capital on Wednesday. He said as the government arranged VGF programme for the fishermen, they will refrain from fishing during the restriction period.
"The ban on catching fish during this period is enforced to ensure safe breeding and conservation of fish and shrimp”, he added. The state minister further said during 2017-18 fiscal year the country become self sufficient in fish by producing 42.77 lakh tonnes of the product. Sea fish sector contributed 6.56 lakh tonnes which is 15.33 percent of the total production.
There are 475 species of fish, 36 species of shrimp, 15 species of crab, seven species of squid and cuttle fish, five species of turtle, 56 species of algae, and 301 species of snail and oyster in the Bay of Bengal—of which, 85 to 90 of are commercially important. Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Raisul Alam Mondal, director general of fish department Abu Said Md Rashedul Haque, among other high officials of the ministry, were also present in the press briefing.