Industries, Commerce, Textiles, and Jute Minister Khandaker Abdul Muktadir offers munajat after inaugurating the construction work of Fire Service and Civil Defence Station at Taltala in the city on Tuesday.
Fishermen and traders have formed a human chain demanding an end to illegal fishing by wooden body trawling in the Bay of Bengal.
The human chain was held in front of the Bagerhat Deputy Commissioner’s office on Monday under the banner of district trawler owners and fishermen’s families.
General Secretary of the Baga Fishermen’s Association, Ibrahim Amani, fishermen Akkas Ali, Saidul Molla, Nazrul Islam, Asharef Molla, and others spoke in the human chain.
Fishermen claim that the wooden trawling vessels that harvest fish in the Bay of Bengal do not have any permits. They fish illegally. Due to the use of very small nets, all the small and big fish in the sea get caught in those nets.
They kill the remaining fish, leaving only the fish that are suitable for sale. These trawling vessels are destroying the fry of 324 species of small and big fish in the sea. If fishing through trawling is not stopped now, the sea will be empty in a few years.
The number of hilsa has already decreased. The fishermen also demanded that raids be conducted in the markets where trawled fish are sold.
Ordinary sea-going fishermen catch hilsa and other fish using large nets. But influential trawlers use small nets to catch all kinds of fish, starting from fish seeds, which is why the number of fish in the sea is constantly decreasing.
Ibrahim Amani, General Secretary of the Baga Fishermen’s Association, said, “There used to be a lot of fish in the sea.
But the number of fish is decreasing day by day. The main reason for this is killing small fish through trawling.
As a result, not only is the livelihood of ordinary fishermen being affected, but the state is also being harmed. Our only demand is to stop trawling and to ban the buying and selling of fish caught through trawling,” the fisherman leader demanded.