For its typical taste Hilsa is a prized species. No sooner the fish lands in city markets, they are lapped up quickly. The present lot that is doing rounds costs an average of Rs.250 a kg, and many among the catch are small ones weighing less than 500 gms, called khoka elish.
Hilsa is a seawater variety that breeds in sweet water. Around this time when it rains, and the flow of sweet river water reduces the salinity level at the deltaic Bengal, Hilsa takes in the scent of the arrival of its breeding time and swims upstream inside the river to breed. The cloud, the thunder and the rain are conducive for their happy breeding.
The fishermen lay in wait at strategic places to catch Hilsa at this time. When the catch is good they know they can get very good prices for their effort. Unfortunately, out of sheer greed they also capture the small ones, the khoka elish variety.
Here is where the trouble lies. Over past few years the catch of Hilsa has been dwindling, and one main reason attributed to this was indiscriminate killing of smaller varieties. Since Hilsa lives barely for few minutes after they’re caught in fishing nets, there is no chance to return the smaller ones back to the water.
The only solution is to increase the hole-size in the net so that the smaller ones are not retained when the catch is hauled on to the fishing boats. This many fishermen do not do for the simple reason that their catch will be less, and so commensurately less money as profit.
The government has now made it mandatory for all sea-going fishermen to increase hole-size in the nets according to specifications set by it. Also, all fishing activity in the sea has been banned from April 15 to June 30 every year.
Further the government has asked to stop catching baby fish and eggs at the deltaic region of Sunderbans. Instead the focus is on cultivating infant sea-fish in hatcheries.
Today the government reps’ are visiting wholesale fish markets in Patipukur, Sealdah and Howrah to ferret out those who are selling small-sized Hilsas. It remains to be seen if anything concrete comes out of it.
Related reading: Fishy tale and Hilsa
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