Bangladesh deploying ships for Tuna fishing

Bangladesh will deploy ships For the first time for fishing Tuna in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Bay of Bengal and the international waters of the adjacent Indian Ocean.

Officials said that the Department of Marine Fisheries (MFD) had commissioned a Singapore-based company to deliver the three ships by July this year.

According to MFD, the ships are being deployed on a pilot basis to extract Tuna, determine the stock and get the local entrepreneurs accustomed to Tuna fishing.

MFD Director Dr Md Sharif Uddin said the ships would venture out next September-October season under their management. “Foreign experts will also be recruited to catch Tuna and train some Bangladeshis,” he said.

Tuna is a migratory, fast-moving, deep-water fish that requires special ships and equipment to catch.

MFD sources said, Tuna is highly valued and popular in the international market and the variety of fish is one-third of the world’s marine fisheries exports. Neighbouring India and Sri Lanka have long been earning huge amounts of foreign currencies from Tuna fishing. After settling the maritime boundary dispute in 2013-14, the government took the initiative to send Bangladeshi fishing vessels to a deeper area of its sea territory in the Bay and international area of the Indian Ocean for Tuna and other pelagic fishing.

In 2018, Bangladesh was awarded membership by the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTA), an intergovernmental organisation responsible for the management of Tuna and Tuna-like species in the Indian Ocean.

The government has taken up a project called ‘Pilot Project on Tuna and Similar Pelagic Fishing in the Deep Sea’ at the cost of Tk 610 million, which will be implemented in 2023.

Under this project, the three fishing vessels with long liner technology are being procured, which are state-of-the-art and equipped with technology including satellite connection, said Dr Md Jobaidul Alam, the project director.

MFD source said sometimes a very small amount of Mackerel or Tuna family-like Eastern Little Tuna locally known as ‘Bom Maittya’, ‘Long Tail Tuna’ locally know as ‘Kawua’ and ‘Bullet Tuna’ locally known as ‘Bullet’ are found.

The ‘Eastern Little Tuna’ with an average weight of 4-5kg is more valuable than others in the local markets of the greater Chattogram region. A small number of ‘Yellow Fin’ and ‘Skip Jack’ Tuna weighing 20-30kg have been caught by fishermen in 200 metres depth areas in the Bay.

Tuna cannot be caught in the current type of trolling in the sea, which requires using the longliners technique used for fishing with hooks.

Tuna fishing and its technology is a new subject for Bangladesh, which requires high-quality technology and a larger investment than usual, said Jobaidul Alam. “The pilot project will help local entrepreneurs get familiar with the practice of catching other fish from the deep sea, including Tuna.”

Bangladesh is the third-largest fish-producing country globally, producing 45.03 million tonnes of fish in the fiscal year 2019-20, of which 6.71 million tonnes of marine fish were extracted from the Bay.

Now Bangladeshi vessels can fish only in the maximum depth of 200 meters of the Bay, the area is only 32,440 sq Km, whereas the country’s sea territory is 118,813 Sq Km. The economic zone and the international open area of the Indian Ocean contain valuable Tuna and other giant fish species, officials and stakeholders said.

Mohammad Shahjalal, Managing Director of Blue Harbor Fisheries Ltd, an enterprise with Tuna fishing license, told The Business Post that the government needs to support local entrepreneurs with low-interest loans and technical support.

“As the government-supported local entrepreneurs through the ‘Shilpa Rin Sangstha’ in the early nineties, private entrepreneurs were able to start deep-sea fishing with the modern trawlers,” he said. “A similar type of support is needed now.”