Hilsa leaves fishermen with bitter taste

(Left) File photo shows fishermen unloading and carrying hilsa fish at Fishery Ghat in Chittagong. (Right) People arrange fish for carrying to the wholesale markets.Photo: Zobaer Hossain Sikder

The mouthwatering smell of freshly fried hilsa fills the air at Mawa Ferry Ghat on the banks of the Padma. Travelers on their way to Shariatpur, Madaripur, Faridpur, Khulna and Bagerhat queue, trying to grab the hotel boys' attention so they can buy small pieces of the delicacy.
It is 10am and amid the heat, noise and frenetic activity of the busy terminal the fish traders have withdrawn to their makeshift thatched and bamboo shelters. The hilsa was landed at 4 am and their jobs are done for the day. Now they are happy to chat and plan for tomorrow.
For traders these are good times. The hilsa season, which stretches from May to November is in full swing and catches and stocks are up. Moreover the strong demand means that even with a good supply, prices in the cities are on the rise.
Trucks crowd the ghat early in the morning to take the fish to Dhaka and since January when an export ban was lifted, further a field, mainly to India. For the traders the problem is how to get the fishermen to land more so they can meet the demand.
Hilsa, or ilish in Bangla, are born in fresh water and then migrate to the Bay of Bengal. Here they feed and grow to maturity before returning upstream to spaw. According to Banglapedia they can reach up to 60cm in length, although they are normally between 35-40cm, with a good sized hilsa weighing around 2.5kilo.
Hilsa is prized for its distinct taste and is the national fish of Bangladesh. With a market value of between Tk70-100 billion it also makes up about 15 percent of the country's fish production.
However in recent years there have been concerns about stocks, especially in upstream areas. The fish's habitat has been damaged by the construction of the Farakka Barrage in India, used to divert water from the Ganges, while pollution and the blocking of rivers and streams in Bangladesh has created further damage. On top of this there has been heavy fishing of hilsa fry, know and jatka, on their migration to the sea.
To deal with this the government got tough on the jatka fishermen, strictly enforcing a ban on the netting of jatka and their mothers in 20 southern coastal districts. Since July a total amount of 69 tonnes of jakta and 92 lakh metres of net have been seized from rivers and 134 cases filed against fishermen violating rules.
But while the traders are happy with business, the fishermen are less, as so far they have benefited little from the upsurge in stocks, prices and demand.
The fishermen on the Padma work at night in teams using small diesel boats and nets. The nets are thrown overboard and stretched across the river near the bottom in order to trap the hilsa who swim in shoals.
Most fishermen are very poor and in order to finance a boat and nets they take loans from the fish trader. These can sometimes reach as much as TK5 lakh. In return the fishermen must sell the catch to the trader who lent them the money. With such a captive supply, the price the trader pays is well below that he can get in the wholesale market.
The system is known locally as 'dadon' and has been around for many generations. According to the Department of Fisheries (Dof) around 233,000 fishermen in 20 districts are directly involved in hilsa fishing.
At Mawa Ghat some of the traders representatives expressed sympathy for the fishermen, but said that without the 'dadon' system it would be difficult to get people to fish.
“It is only the very poor who become fishermen and they do not have the money for boats and nets by themselves so they have to find a way to borrow,” one said.
“If the poor fishermen could sell the fishes directly to the wholesale market without the intervention of the traders then perhaps the prices of the item would decline,” he added.
The high price of hilsa in the domestic market was the reason the government moved last June to ban the export of the fish to India for six months. Prices however have not come down.
At Mawa Ghat yesterday the wholesale price of hisla was between Tk30,000 and Tk32,000 per maund ( around 40kilos). End customers in Dhaka can expect to pay considerably more.
And in Dhaka there are concerns among market traders that the hilsa supply is still too limited. Anwar Hossain Sikder president of Dhaka Metropolitan Fishes and Small Vegetable Traders' Association said; “Now, hilsa does not come on a large scale even during the full rainy season due to deposits of silt on the seabed and riverbed and in the channels to the sea.”
Professor Shafi, former chairman of the Department of Fisheries of Dhaka University advocated the excavation of river channels to enhance their flow so hilsa, a deep water fish, can easily enter Bangladesh's rivers. The government should also continue the campaign against catching jakta, he added.
At the Mawa Ferry Ghat there were no jakta on the menu, only mature hilsa, hundreds upon hundreds of them, chopped, freshly fired and filling the air with that mouthwatering smell.

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