A single trawler catches 117 mound of hilsa in Hatia

A single trawler that went on fishing into the deep sea has caught 117 mounds of hilsa.

The hilsa were sold for more than Tk 1.4 million (1,455,948) at a wholesale market named Meghna Fishing Agency at Chairmanghat in Noakhali’s Hatia on Thursday night.

The owner and other fishermen of the trawler are delighted to catch so many hilsa in one go, after being in the sea for only five days.

Manager of Meghna Fishing Agency Md Habibur Rahman told Prothom Alo, locally not that many hilsa are being caught in the Meghna River.

However, those who are going to the deep sea for fishing are finding good catch. One such fishing trawler is FB Raihan, owned by Malek Company of Bhola’s Daulatkhan upazila.

Habibur Rahman said that master of the trawler FB Raihan, Md Shafiqur Rahman steered the fishermen into the sea for fishing on 29 September.

The trawler returned to Chairmanghat with fish at around 9 pm on Thursday night. After those fish were put on auction there, each mound sold for about Tk 12 thousand (12,444). This took the total price of the fish up to 1.45 million.

Owner of the trawler Abdul Maleq told Prothom Alo that fishing was banned for 22 days at a stretch due to government restrictions. This left all the fishermen of his trawler jobless.

After the ban was lifted, the fishermen of his trawler went on fishing into deep sea on 29 September. They were in the sea for five days. They contacted the wholesale market of Chairmanghat on the way back on Thursday and sold the fish there for a good price.

Alauddin, a fisherman from Chairmanghat told Prothom Alo the trawler had hilsa weighing from 600 grams to 2 and 2.5 kilogram on board.

He said that the news of such a huge amount of hilsa being caught by a single trawler is inspiring other fishermen to go fishing into the sea.

While talking to Prothom Alo, president of Hatia upazila fish traders’ association and Harni union parishad chairman Md Akhter Hossain said, when the ban was lifted, some fishermen went fishing into the sea while some others went into the river.

Those going into deep sea are getting better haul compared to those fishing in the river.

Fishermen in rivers are making profit out of Powa fish they are catching, he added.