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 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 have been playing a very significant role and deserve 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 5.61 percent. Whereas last four years 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 isdirectly 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 specially the fish and prawn enter in 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 large surface water body that accumulates surface runoff water through internal drainage channel. Bangladesh has thousands of beels, with the most common names being Chalan Beel, Gopalganj-KhulnaBeel, 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. Fisheries sector creates more than 1.65 million people employment opportunity. 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 which 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 coast line and approximately 1 million hectares of territorial waters. The nation's exclusive economic zone extends 320 km out to the sea from the coast line. 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 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 fresh water, 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 occupies 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 the 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 bigfreshwater 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.
2.2. Marine Fisheries
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.
3. Production: 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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