Smiles at Halda
Spawn collectors were all smiles as indigenous freshwater fish released eggs in the Halda river yesterday.
Heavy rain accompanied by thunderbolt since Friday morning and strong current in the river had created a favourable atmosphere for mother fish to release spawn.
The Halda is the country's largest natural breeding ground for indigenous carp, including ruhi, katol, mrigel and kalbaush.
The carps usually release eggs at different spots in the river during full moon or the dark fortnight. Though it was neither full moon nor the dark fortnight yesterday, the fish released a good amount of eggs as the atmosphere was congenial, said experts.
More than 200 spawn collectors with 105 boats and nets had been waiting in the river since Friday noon. Their wait came to an end around 2:00am yesterday when carp fish started releasing eggs at Napiter Ghona of the river.
The collectors also found eggs in other spots, including Khalifar Ghona, Bari Ghona and Ramdas Munshir Hat, of the river.
Spawn collector Mohammad Khaled engaged two boats to collect eggs. He said he collected two buckets of spawn (approximately 16 kg each) from Napiter Ghona and Ramdas Minshir Hat areas.
“I expected more but my two boats could collect two buckets of spawn altogether,” he told The Daily Star.
Khaled said he invested Tk 5,000 for each boat. “It will take four days to get fish fry from the spawn,” he said, adding, “I will process those in my own well.”
Around 250 grammes of fry could be produced from a bucket of spawn, he said, adding that the price of one kg of fry is around Tk one lakh.
Many collectors, who returned home almost empty-handed after waiting for three months last year, did not show up this year, he said. “They thought the same thing would happen again this year.”
Khaled said most of the boats collected a bucket of eggs on an average.
Kamal Uddin Sawdagor engaged five boats to collect eggs. He said he invested Tk 10,000 for each boat. “Each boat collected one and a half buckets of eggs.”
Like Khaled, he too was not satisfied with the collection of eggs. “I'm not fully satisfied with the collection ... My expectation was high.”
“I think the fish will release eggs once again this season,” he observed.
Halda researcher Manzoorul Kibria, an associate professor of zoology department at Chittagong University, said a total of 1,680kg of spawn was collected by 105 boats yesterday. A total of 28kg fish fry could be obtained from the spawn (1kg fry from 60kg spawn).
Spawn collectors went back almost empty-handed last year, while in 2015, a total of 47kg of fry was collected.
Kibria said the collection of fry was 275kg in 2014, 70kg in 2013, 354kg in 2012 and 210 kg in 2011.
“Although it's a good sign that indigenous fish have started releasing spawn in this river, yet it remains a matter of worry as the fish have not released eggs on a large scale,” he said.
He emphasised on saving the river from pollution and stopping man-made hazards like rubber dam, manual dredgers, sluice gates, tobacco farming and brick kilns on the bank of the river.
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