Fishing ban violated at will

Fishermen keep violating a government ban on fishing in rivers.

The authorities imposed a two-month long ban from March 1 in sanctuary rivers of six southern districts, but the fishermen were seen netting in the rivers and selling them at local markets in broad daylight.

Visiting Port Road Wholesale Market in Barishal's Sadar upazila, this correspondent found hilsha and other fishes available that were caught from the district's Padma, Meghna, Kirtonkhola, Kalabador, Andharmanik, Gojaria, Lota and other rivers.

In addition to that, using the opportunity, some seasonal businessmen started selling fish at a lower price, that too at customers' doorsteps.

Azizul Haque, acting district fishery officer of Barishal, told The Daily Star that they conducted drives with mobile courts and launched awareness programmes to prevent fishermen from fishing.

But doing so is very difficult because of a manpower shortage, he said, adding, “We are conducting regular drives to protect fish.”

On the other hand, many of the fishermen alleged that they were not fully aware of the ban and asked how they could earn their bread.

The government had introduced the ban in 2006 to facilitate safe spawning and increase national fishing wealth.

Under the ban, nobody can catch any kind of fish by any means from those rivers in six districts -- Barishal, Bhola, Patuakhali, Shariatpur, Chandpur and Laxmipur.

A total of 432km stretch of the rivers is under the purview of the ban.