1.
Introduction:
Bangladesh is a
South Asian country located in between latitude
20°34' and 26°39' north and longitude 80°00' and 90°41' east. The country is
crisscrossed with hundreds of rivers and it has established a credible record
of sustained growth within a stable macro-economic framework where fisheries
sector play an imperative and prospective involvement in agro-based pecuniary
expansion, destitution easing, employment and delivering of animal protein and
grossing the overseas exchange. Fish (including shrimp and prawn) is the second most
valuable agricultural crop and its production contributes to the livelihoods
and employment of millions. The key
objectives of the sector are enhanced fisheries production; poverty alleviation
through creating self-employment and improvement of the socio-economic paradigm of
the fishers; meet the demand for animal protein; achieve economic growth and
earn foreign currency by exporting fish and fisheries products and maintain
ecological balance; conserve biodiversity and improve public health.
Bangladesh
has achieved remarkable progress in the fisheries sector since its independence
in 1971. Fisheries sector has been playing a very significant role and deserves
potential for future development in the agrarian economy of Bangladesh. This
sector contributes 4.39% to the national GDP and almost one fourth (22.76%) to
the agricultural GDP (Bangladesh Economic Review 2012). In recent years, this
sector performs the highest GDP growth rate in comparison to other agricultural
sectors (crop, livestock, and forestry). The growth rate of this sector over the
last 10 years is almost steady and encouraging, varying from 4.76 to 7.32
percent with an average of 5.61 percent. Whereas the last four years the average growth
rate of this sector is 6.22 percent. The country's export earnings from this
sector are 2.46% in 2011-12. The sector's contribution to the national economy
is much higher than its 4.39% share in GDP, as it provides about 60% of the
animal protein intake and more than 11% of the total population of the country
is directly or
indirectly involved in this sector for their livelihoods. There are 40.24 lakh ha open water
bodies in our country. Among them, 8.5 lakh ha are rivers and estuaries, 1.8
lakh ha Sundarbans, 1.1 lakh ha beel, 28.32 lakh ha floodplains and
68,800 ha Kaptai. Beel is one of the best natural habitats for the
indigenous fishes of different food habits of Bangladesh. Most of the aquatic
species especially the fish and prawn enter the inundated areas of the beel
from the adjoining rivers and canals to feed and grow during the monsoon
months. The ‘beel’ a Bengali term
is used for a large surface water body that accumulates surface runoff water
through the internal drainage channel. Bangladesh has thousands of beels,
with the most common names being Chalan Beel, Gopalganj-Khulna Beel,
Meda Beel, Aila Beel, Dekhar beel, Kuri Beel, Erali
beel, and Arial Beel. The average rate of production from beel
is 714 kg/ha which can be increased manifold.
Therefore, it can reduce its malnutrition
problem by increasing the production of fish. The fisheries sector creates more
than 1.65 million people in employment opportunities. A large portion of rural
family members is engaged in part-time fishing from the rivers and other open
water bodies. The mission of the fish department is
to support sustainable growth in fish and shrimp production with other aquatic
resources for domestic consumption and exports as well and management of open
water fisheries resources through community participation leading to equitable
distribution of the benefits generated for optimal economic and social growth
of Bangladesh. The total area of perennial inland water is generally
estimated at 1.58 million hectares while the area of inundated paddy fields and
other low-lying places that retain monsoon waters for about six months
allowing seasonal fish culture is estimated at 2.83 million hectares. The
Republic has a 480 - kilometer long coastline and approximately 1 million
hectares of territorial waters. The nation's exclusive economic zone extends
320 km out to the sea from the coastline. Thus the nation's total area of
waters having fish production potential is very great.
2. Fishery
Resources:
Bangladesh is endowed
with rich and extensive fisheries resources. Due to natural conditions and
geographical location, Bangladesh has huge fisheries resources having a high
potential of increasing fisheries production. The country's
fisheries may be conveniently divided into inland and marine sectors, although
the dividing line between salt and freshwater, and open sea and inland
waterway is very nebulous. Fishermen too move seasonally from inland open
waters to sea fishing so that any demarcation between the two fisheries must be
arbitrary.
Inland fisheries is further divided into two groups i.e. aqua-culture and
inland capture. Inland fisheries occupy an area of 45.75 lakh ha and marine capture
covers 1, 66,000 sq.km. The culture fisheries include ponds, ox-bow lakes, and
coastal shrimp farms. The flood-plains and the beels, which cover an area of
29.5 lakh ha, offering tremendous scope and potential for augmenting fish
production by adopting aquaculture based enhancement techniques.
2.1.
Inland Fisheries
The inland fishery resources of
Bangladesh are considered to be unexcelled either in area or potential by any
other inland fisheries of the world. Inland fisheries contribute nearly 90 percent
to the total catch of fish in Bangladesh. Inland culture includes mainly
pond/ditch, baor, shrimp/prawn farm, seasonal cultured water-body etc. covering
an area of about 7.41 lakh ha and produces 17.26 lakh MT fish and shrimp in the
2011-12. Though the closed water area is only 15.55% of the total inland
water-bodies, but 52.92% of the total yield comes from inland aquaculture. The
inland water resources can be conveniently divided into the following
categories:
a) Open inland waters
which include the rivers and their tributaries; 'baors', 'haors' and 'beels'
connected at least occasionally with rivers and streams; and the estuaries, The
main river system in Bangladesh includes the Padma, the Meghna, The Brahmaputra and the Karnaphuli and their
tributaries. The baors comprise ox-bow lakes and other forms of defunct rivers.
There are many large and small baors in Jessore district and several in the
districts of Kushtia and Faridpur. Among the larger baors in Jessore, Baluhar
Baor (272 hectare), Joydia Baor (207), Sasta Baor (187), Morjad Baor (292),
Bergobindapur Boar (214) and Jhampa Baor (183) represent only a few. The
haors synonymously called beels, are
natural depressions used partially as agricultural lands, and seasonally or
perennially filled from adjacent rivers or monsoon waters. Most of the larger
haors/beels are located in Sylhet, Mymensingh and Faridpur. Kakaluki Haor
(36,437 hectare), Tangua Haor (25,506) and Bardai Haor (3,239) in Sylhet
district, and Beel Meskha (6,478) and Bengla Char Banda (6,073) in Mymensingh
are among the big
freshwater
and salt water. The estuarine region of Bangladesh is interspersed with
numerous distributaries of rivers, inlets of the sea and defunct streams which are
interconnected with numerous channels. The deltaic area in Bangladesh is an
archipelago.
b)
Closed waters include ponds, dighis and tanks. For irrigation and other general
purposes the feudal kings moharajas and land lords of the past had excavated
tanks, dighis (larger tanks) and moats and thus set examples of their
benevolent spirit for the good of their subjects. Simultaneously, well-to-do
commoners also for their own requirements excavated quite a large number of
tanks and dighis but of comparatively small size. As a result, water bodies of
assorted shape and size are common almost everywhere in the country. In some
places these ponds and dighis are widely scattered and, in some places in
clusters or in groups. With political and social changes, the system of administration
has also changed and the feudal system has since been abolished. All landed
properties including the ponds owned by the Zamindars have been acquired by the
Government. Due to continuous neglect most of these water bodies have turned
into derelict waters. The number of such derelict ponds, dighis and canals are
numerous
Rivers
and estuaries are major sources of fish fry which are collected and used for
fish culture in closed and semi-enclosed waters. The major carps species e.g.,
Rui, Catla, Mrigal etc., occur
throughout the larger river systems in Bangladesh where the sexually mature
brood fish spawn during monsoon when rivers are in flood. Major spawning
grounds of these valuable fish species include:
i.
Halda River - the lower reaches of the river from Sattaghat (near Gahira) to
its
confluence with the Karnaphuli River.
ii.
Arial Khan River - the region near Madaripur.
iii.
Garai River - near the general area of Kushtia.
iv.
Ganges River - the area west of Rajshahi and estward in areas near Lalpur.
v.
Jamuna River - the regions adjacent to Sirajganj and near Fulchharighat.
vi.
Old Brahmaputra River - the region north of Mymensingh.
Table:
Types of inland waters having fish production potential
In
addition to the above inland waters, the Republic has an extensive shelf area
of which 37000 km (square kilometres) is no deeper that 50m (metres). The enire
shelf (down to 200m) covers an area of
67,000 km. According to West, Bangladesh continental shelf covers an area of
27,000 mi (square miles) or 69,900 km. Beyond this continental shelf is the
deep sea. The segment of marine water extending from the coast line into the
sea upto the limit of 12 miles (19km) constitutes the territorial water of
Bangladesh. The Republic reserves the exclusive right for exploitation of
fisheries from this territorial water mass measuring approximately 1 million
hectares. The declared economic zone extends 200 miles (320 km) out to the sea
from the coast line. There are many indications that the continental-shelf
waters of Bangladesh are rich in fish, shellfish and other biological resources
potential of the Bay of Bengal.
Table - Important commercial marine fish and shrimp
species in the upper Bay of Bengal
The country has huge
opportunities for the development of brackish water aquaculture boosting shrimp
production and earning substantial amount of foreign currencies. Production of
shrimp from culture and capture fisheries increased to a great extent in the
beginning of 1980's. Since then, brackish water shrimp farming has been
expanded to over 2.14 lakh ha of land by 2011 from 1.4 lakh ha in 1980. It is
expected that with the introduction of improved scientific method of shrimp
culture, the present production of shrimp will be increased substantially. The
country has limited access to marine fisheries resources in the Bay of Bengal.
Only demarsal fish and shrimp are being trapped from here. Other potential
marine resources are yet to be exploited on commercial scale. Only 18% of total
fish production comes from Marine capture fisheries and 82% from inland
fisheries.
The present democratic
government has undertaken new policy for sustainable aquaculture production;
provide need based aquaculture extension services, implements fish conservation
activities which increase the national fisheries production as well as the
growth rate in fisheries sector. Besides these, fisheries extension and
conservation activities, AIGs and rehabilitation programs for poor fishers etc.
were undertaken. Through the Execution of Fisheries Friendly Policy of the
present government, total fish production has been increased from 27.00 lakh
metric ton in 2008-09 to 30.62 lakh metric ton in 2010-11.
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