Hilsa fishing banned for 22 days

Secretariat Correspondent: The ban on fishing, selling, hoarding and transportation of all types of fish in the hilsa habitats of the Padma and the Meghna will be effective from this midnight.

The government has imposed the ban from October 12 to November 2.

The annual ban, usually 15-day long, has been extended this year for ensuring safe spawning of hilsa during its peak breeding season.

The ban has been extended as researchers found that spawning hilsas were caught before and after the 15-day ban in the last few years.

Shoals of mother hilsas start swimming upstream from the sea towards the rivers, weeks before the full moon in October (Ashwin in Bengali calendar), and they return to the sea after spawning.

The government has been imposing fishing bans since 2003-04 to protect mother hilsas.

risingbd/Dhaka/Oct 11, 2016/Hassan/Mukul