Use of banned net killing fish resources

To stroll along the Pankhali Ferry Ghat riverbank via Chalna Bazar in Khulna's Dacope upazila is to watch fishers busy, dawn to dusk, as they haul fine-mesh triangular nets in the hope of collecting juvenile shrimp. A livelihood for hundreds, the illegal activity continues unabated, threatening the biodiversity and ecological balance of Sundarbans waterways including the Shibsha River.

“Large numbers of juvenile crustaceans and fish fry of various species are destroyed every day,” says environmentalist Anawarul Kadir. “Such fishing activities impede healthy fish reproduction and spoil the ecosystem. While it continues, one can only be anxious about our environmental future.”

The use of fine-mesh current nets is banned in order to protect fish stocks. But such government regulation is routinely ignored.

According to Chandon Shil, a fisheries and marine technology student from Khulna University, current net fishing occurs throughout the protected mangrove forest, where unscrupulous forest department officials turn a blind eye; while some police personnel allow such catch to be sold in public markets.

This time of year is the breeding season for many fish and crustacean species, with the rivers of the Sundarbans attracting large schools of fish for mating. But the natural fish nursery is disturbed, not only by the harvesting of juvenile shrimp but when fishers discard the other species that fall foul of their nets.

Dr Dilip Kumar Datta, an environmental science professor from Khulna University estimates that to collect a single juvenile shrimp involves destroying on average around 200 fish fry and over 1,000 other, often microscopic, life forms upon which fish rely for food. “Whole species are at risk of entirely disappearing from the local environment through unplanned fishing,” he says.

According to one police officer of Chalna police station who did not wish to be identified, the tidal zones of canals, channels and shoals across the Shela, Pashur and Balasher Rivers of the eastern Sundarbans as well as the Shibsha River to the west are regularly littered with hundreds of thousands of nets as people of all ages engage in illegal fishing for juvenile shrimp.

Local NGO Rupantar reports about six lakh people, mostly women and children, partake in the activity. The zonal commander of the Coast Guard's west zone, Mehadi Masud, meanwhile, says fishers and fish traders hide their motor boats in narrow channels and inlets, making them difficult to find. But, he says, around 80 crore taka worth of current nets have been seized in the course of the coast guard's daily drive against illegal fishing.

“There are so many people involved in this activity,” says Khulna district's fisheries officer, Profullah Kumar Sarker, “It's tough to stop them. But we are working towards increasing community awareness of the problem.”