Motinuzzaman Mitu: Statistic report from past 3 years of Department of Fisheries (DoF) show that, fishermen were able to collect lesser & lesser fish each year. Total of 18,366 metric tons of fish was caught in 2013-14, while it came down to 16,870 metric tons in 2015-16. The administration’s poor management is responsible for this, complains an employee of DoF.
He also mentioned that, there is no proper record of the fishes & other marine lives in Sundarban area. No private nor government initiatives were ever taken in order rejuvenate the marine lives in this area. No collective researches were ever conducted there. Only few popular fish species that people regularly consume and gets exported, had been listed.
Even fisherman follow no code of ethics and they fish year-around without thinking about the future. They even use poison to catch fishes & kill away countless marine lives in the process. Specially harming all kinds of fingerlings & endangering countless species’ growth. Also, the contamination spread throughout the 1,800 square kilometers of rivers lands.
By collecting fishes without any plan or future strategies for past years, caused the government to lose more land resources than earning remittance. Over 200 fish species are on the endangered list. Sundarbans is under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department. Therefore, DoF is unable to take any initiative.
-Translated by: Eshan Maitra
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