UK dives in to save the hilsa
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Hilsa
, the fish that every Bengali worth his mustard oil swears by, has
found help from British shores. One of the world's best known
conservation initiatives has decided to financially back a
first-of-its-kind multinational project to save Bangladesh's most famous
export from extinction.
Britain's Darwin Initiative has given the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a UK-based independent policy research institute, a £208,315 (approximately Rs 1.7 crore) grant to find ways of protecting hilsa from the threat of overfishing.
The world catch statistics of hilsa show that 90 per cent of the global harvest comes from three countries: Bangladesh (50 per cent), India (25 per cent) and Myanmar (15 per cent). Hilsa fishery contributes one per cent of Bangladesh's GDP, with the government earning an average of $630 million from export annually. But the catch has significantly declined since the 1970s, due to overfishing, and resulted in increased market price. Parts of India saw the price rocket to Rs 2,000/kg last year.
Speaking to STOI, lead project officer Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed from IIED, says, "We started the conservation project in April this year in Bangladesh. In two years, we will involve India and Myanmar. Hilsa colony numbers are plummeting. If fishing does not stop during breeding season , the species faces extinction."
As it is anadromous in nature, hilsa lives in the sea for most of its life, but migrates up to 1,200 km inland through major rivers in the Indian sub-continent for spawning. It ascends to the rivers during monsoon, at the height of turbulent river waters, and breeds en masse. After breeding, the spent fish return and join the inshore marine population for next season's run, that is if they are not caught. The small juveniles, which are up to 23 cm in length, stay in the lower mouth of the rivers for six months, and then travel to the inshore waters to spend their adulthood until they too make the breeding run in the next one or two years. Hilsa fisheries in Bangladesh provide full-time employment to about 4.5 lakh professional and 2.5 million part-time fisher folk. To protect the species, the government has declared four sites in the rivers of Meghna and Padma covering 7,000 sq km as sanctuaries, banning fishing during the reproductive season. It mentions that "all activities related to juvenile hilsa (up to 23 cm in length) like catching, transportation , marketing, selling and possession have been banned between November 1 and May 31 every year in Bangladesh".
Dr Mohammed says the IIED project aims to introduce an effective payment mechanism to incentivize fishermen to prevent overfishing . "Excessive fishing means the fish can't replace itself through the next generation," he says. By the end of the project, the team wants to put in place an improved mechanism for ensuring sustainable management of hilsa fishery, incorporating incentives against compliance with fishing restrictions. The project will also carry out an ecological baseline assessment that encompasses both biological (stock assessment, reproductive cycle and migration patterns), physical and chemical factors of the fish and its habitat. It will also float the world's first Hilsa Conservation Fund.
Dr Mohammed says, "An effective payment mechanism will reduce threats to marine biodiversity and contribute to poverty alleviation through improved targeting of those affected, maintaining a food source for the poor and enabling continued employment of small-scale fishermen in Bangladesh, Myanmar and India."
Britain's Darwin Initiative has given the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a UK-based independent policy research institute, a £208,315 (approximately Rs 1.7 crore) grant to find ways of protecting hilsa from the threat of overfishing.
The world catch statistics of hilsa show that 90 per cent of the global harvest comes from three countries: Bangladesh (50 per cent), India (25 per cent) and Myanmar (15 per cent). Hilsa fishery contributes one per cent of Bangladesh's GDP, with the government earning an average of $630 million from export annually. But the catch has significantly declined since the 1970s, due to overfishing, and resulted in increased market price. Parts of India saw the price rocket to Rs 2,000/kg last year.
Speaking to STOI, lead project officer Dr Essam Yassin Mohammed from IIED, says, "We started the conservation project in April this year in Bangladesh. In two years, we will involve India and Myanmar. Hilsa colony numbers are plummeting. If fishing does not stop during breeding season , the species faces extinction."
As it is anadromous in nature, hilsa lives in the sea for most of its life, but migrates up to 1,200 km inland through major rivers in the Indian sub-continent for spawning. It ascends to the rivers during monsoon, at the height of turbulent river waters, and breeds en masse. After breeding, the spent fish return and join the inshore marine population for next season's run, that is if they are not caught. The small juveniles, which are up to 23 cm in length, stay in the lower mouth of the rivers for six months, and then travel to the inshore waters to spend their adulthood until they too make the breeding run in the next one or two years. Hilsa fisheries in Bangladesh provide full-time employment to about 4.5 lakh professional and 2.5 million part-time fisher folk. To protect the species, the government has declared four sites in the rivers of Meghna and Padma covering 7,000 sq km as sanctuaries, banning fishing during the reproductive season. It mentions that "all activities related to juvenile hilsa (up to 23 cm in length) like catching, transportation , marketing, selling and possession have been banned between November 1 and May 31 every year in Bangladesh".
Dr Mohammed says the IIED project aims to introduce an effective payment mechanism to incentivize fishermen to prevent overfishing . "Excessive fishing means the fish can't replace itself through the next generation," he says. By the end of the project, the team wants to put in place an improved mechanism for ensuring sustainable management of hilsa fishery, incorporating incentives against compliance with fishing restrictions. The project will also carry out an ecological baseline assessment that encompasses both biological (stock assessment, reproductive cycle and migration patterns), physical and chemical factors of the fish and its habitat. It will also float the world's first Hilsa Conservation Fund.
Dr Mohammed says, "An effective payment mechanism will reduce threats to marine biodiversity and contribute to poverty alleviation through improved targeting of those affected, maintaining a food source for the poor and enabling continued employment of small-scale fishermen in Bangladesh, Myanmar and India."
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