Bangladeshi authorities announced on Saturday that they had imposed a three-week ban on fishing from October 4 to 25 to protect the spawning areas.
The defence force’s Inter-Service Public Relations said in a statement that 17 navy warships and patrol helicopters had been deployed to enforce the ban and protect the fish.
“The warships and state-of-the-art maritime patrol aircraft have been conducting round-the-clock surveillance to prevent the intrusion of domestic and foreign fishermen into the deep sea,” it said.
Millions in Bangladesh depend on the fish, which can cost up to 2,200 taka ($18.40) a kilogram in Dhaka.
Indian fishing fleets trawl the brackish waters of the River Ganges and its vast delta, meeting demand in the megacity of Kolkata and the wider state of West Bengal, which has a population exceeding 100 million people.
Overfishing to meet such demand can deplete stocks as the hilsa return to spawn.
Environmental experts say fish stocks have also been affected by changes to the ecologically sensitive and low-lying deltas, which are threatened by rising seas driven by climate change.
However, they also fear the ships could disturb the spawning hilsa at a critical time.
Md Abdul Wahab, the former head of the Eco Fish project at WorldFish, told AFP that the hilsa needed “calm and undisturbed waters for spawning” and suggested using drones instead.
The Bangladesh government has allocated 25 kilograms of rice per fishing family to compensate for the ban during the spawning period.
Some said that was not enough.
“These three weeks are very difficult for fishermen, as we have no other means of survival,” said Sattar Majhi, a 60-year-old fisherman.
Earlier, Dhaka had decided to permit the export of 1,200 tonnes of Hilsa fish to India ahead of Durga Puja.
“The government has taken a policy decision to conditionally export 1,200 (one thousand two hundred) metric tons of Hilsa to India on the occasion of Durga Puja in the current year 2025,” the Bangladesh Commerce Ministry said in a notification.
© Agence France-Presse
