BHOLA: Three months of the season gone past dull, maritime fishing communities laughed the late laugh with shoals of shining hilsha fish trapped onto the net.       

Particularly, the fishermen of Bhola kept making huge catches in the coastal Tentulia River late in the season. Each day hilsha traders are exporting the delicious fish worth Tk 7 crore, according to an unofficial estimate.

Though the marine fishing season is almost over, huge hilshas are getting caught onto the net in the Tentulia, several fishermen told banglanews.

“If we can continue fishing such amounts of hilsha over the next one month, everyday the losses incurred during the whole season will be recouped,” said Kamal Hossain, a fisherman of Bhola.

Most fishermen are now getting 200 to 300 fishes in each netting round, while in the whole season they got only 15 to 20 in an attempt.

Fish-trader Md Delwar Hossain said, “Thousands of baskets of fishes are being traded everyday from more than a hundred ghats on the bank of Tentulia.”

Kamal, president of the fish wholesalers association, told banglanews that catches worth more than Tk 25 lakh are being sold from only four ghats a day.

In this calculation from the whole of Bhola district the amount will exceed Tk 7 crore, he said.

Bhola district fisheries officer Pitish Kumar Mallik said, “A good number of fishes are being caught as the weather is favourable.”

BDST 1656 HRS, SEP 14, 2010