Indiscriminate use of pesticides responsible: Manik Lal

Indiscriminate use of pesticides on croplands and harmful fishing nets are responsible for extinction of many species of fresh water fishes to a great extent, Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser Manik Lal Samaddar said yesterday.
He also urged all stakeholders to work together to protect the remaining species of fresh water fishes and underscored the need for creating mass awareness to this end.
Manik was addressing a press conference at Matsya Bhaban in the city ahead of the Fish Resource Development Movement 2008 that begins tomorrow.
He said fishes from both fresh and saline water meet up country's 60 per cent need of total animal protein.
“Earlier we could catch 90 to 95 per cent of total quantity of hilsa in the world but at present this amount has decreased to 50 to 60 percent only,” he added.
He also said that shrimp cultivation is emerging as the second largest foreign remittance earner following the garment sector.
Already 127 fish processing industries of international standard have been set up and of them 48 received licenses from the European Union, he added.
Manik also told the press conference that the government has set up three laboratories in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna to control the quality of shrimp consignments so that these are not returned once they are exported.
He said National Shrimp Policy 2008 will be approved soon and distributed to the stakeholders.
In answer to a question, Director General (DG) of Fisheries Directorate Rafiqul Islam said annually the country can produce only about 24 lakh tons of fish (fresh and saline water) whereas the demand is 27 lakh tons.