Bhola: Fishermen overnight returned to the sea as a nearly two-month long routine ban on fishing in the Bay of Bengal to allow marine fishes proper breeding was exhausted at midnight yesterday, officials and people concerned said. They said the fishermen in Bhola and other coastline districts left their home and sailed in the sea with their fishing gears including nets as the temporary prohibition period was ended.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, Bhola’s district fisheries officer Biswajit Kumar Deb stated that the government imposed a 58-day fishing ban in the Bay of Bengal on April 15 to ensure proper breeding, production, preservation, and collection of marine fisheries. During the prohibition period, the government provided 78 kilograms of rice to each fisherman under the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) program.
The number of sea-bound fishermen alone in Bhola is around 65,000, but various associations representing the fishermen claim that at least one lakh people in the district rely on fishing in the sea for their livelihood, and all of them deserved the assistance. The ban was enforced under section-3 of the ‘Sea Fish Rules-2023’ for the proper management of marine fisheries.
The Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Coast Guard collaborated with the Department of Fisheries to enforce the ban and conduct joint operations against the fishing of all sorts of fishes in the sea.