Fishermen catch silver hilsa in swarms, activity returns to the wharf

At the beginning of the season, fishermen are catching flocks of silver hilsa in the sea. This has brought back activity to the coastal fishing ports. The Kuakata, Alipur and Mahipur ghats are busy unloading, sorting, packaging and storing hilsa in ice from morning to night.

As soon as the fishermen's trawlers full of hilsa arrive at the ghat, the workers are unloading the fish in baskets. Large and small hilsa are being loaded separately into trucks and sent to different parts of the country. Due to low supply at the beginning of the season, the market price is relatively high. A kilogram of large-sized hilsa is being sold for 2,000 to 2,500 taka, and a kilogram of medium-sized hilsa is being sold for 1,200 to 1,300 taka.

In the last few days, 45-50 tons of hilsa have been sold at Mahipur and Alipur fishing ports. One trawler sold 7 lakh 50 thousand taka, another 9 lakh 75 thousand taka and one trawler sold fish worth 13 lakh 51 thousand taka. This has brought smiles to the faces of the fishermen and revived the local economy.

However, a section of the fishermen said that the abundance of Jatka Hilsa is still high in the sea. Experts say that if strict measures are taken to control the killing of Jatka, the availability of large-sized Hilsa will increase in the future.

There is now a festive atmosphere along the coast, and the center of it is the Rupali Hilsa—which, in addition to returning the fortunes of the fishermen, is also bringing a positive message to the country's economy.