A rare Baghair fish, also known as the devil catfish or Gangetic goonch, weighing 37.5 kg, was netted from the river Jamuna at Goalanda ghat in Rajbari district on Tuesday.
The giant fish was caught by the net of some fishermen at the Char Kalabagan area of the river, eight kilometres away from the ghat, in the morning and Masud Molla, a fish trader purchased the fish from the fishermen for Tk 45,000 (Tk 1200 per kg), in an open auction at the market.
Later, he sold the fish at Tk 49,000 in the afternoon. It will be brought to Dhaka on Wednesday morning.
Mostafa Al Rajib, Goalanda Upazila Fisheries officer, said the Baghair fish is a rare fish. However, he said he is not aware of the legal prohibition of catching or selling such rare fish.
The fish is also a protected wildlife species of the Bangladesh Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012. Besides, it is also marked as "critically endangered" in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said Rathindra Kumar Biswas, Animal and Biodiversity Conservation officer of the Wildlife Prevention Unit.
As per the law, fishing, buying, selling, transporting or possessing of such fish is a punishable offence.
