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| Fisherman catches fish with Mesh |
Fish
forms a principal item of our food next only to rice. So it is in great demand.
It is why the gathering of the buyers is the thickest in the fish-markets.
Fishes are found in tanks, rivers, marshes, lake and seas. The
rivers, marshes and canals of Bangladesh abound in fish. It breeds and grows
naturally in these place. Many people rear fish in tanks for personal
consumption and for sale.
There are innumerable kinds of fish in
Bangladesh. Of them the hilsa, rohit, katla, mrigel, kalbose, kai,
magur, shingi, chital, boal, vetki, tangra, pabda and punti are the most
common. Some of these live in rivers, some in tanks or ponds, some in swamps
and some, again, in seas. The hilsa is found in rivers only. Fishes are of many
sizes and colors; some are beautiful to look at, while others are ugly. They
have two round eyes without lids and four pair of gills and five pair of fins.
They feed upon grass, weeds and insects, but the larger kinds of fish feed upon
the smaller ones.
Fish makes delicious curry. Various
delicious preparations are made from fish. Fish contains a good amount of
phosphorus. Fish-oil can be put to many uses. Fresh fish and dry fish are
exported from Bangladesh to foreign countries in huge
quantities. They bring in a good amount of money. Shrimps are now being
exported to a number of European and America countries from our country and we
are earning a good amount of foreign exchange thereby. Nets of different kinds
are made for catching different kinds of fish. Angling is a popular way of
catching fish. Even the rich people have the hobby of catching fish by angling.
The people who earn their
livelihood by catching fish are the fishermen. They are a class by themselves.
They
are also called ‘ Jeleys’ in Bengali because they catch fish by
using the ‘Jal’ or the net. They are hard-working and
painstaking people. They catch fish with nets in the big rivers like the Padma
and the Meghna. As fishermen are not necessarily traders in fish, the
middlemen who are known as ‘nikaris’ take advantage of buying fish at a
cheap rate from them. The middlemen then take fish to the market and sell it at
an exorbitant price to the actual buyers. Thus they make a good profit at the
cost of the fishermen.
As a result, the sad plight of the fishermen has become all the more miserable.
Nevertheless, fishing and fish-trade have got immense possibolities. Extensive
bils and haors of Sylhet, Mymensingh, Bogra and of other districts are
potential sources of fish supply. Our government, through the Department of
Fisheries, has taken definite steps for increasing the production of fish and
developing the fish trade. Deep sea fishing has also been started in the Bay of
Bengal. Fish is a great wealth of our country.
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