CHATTOGRAM, May 27, 2021 (BSS)- Some popular species of fishes specially Ruhi, Katla, Mrigel and Kaliboush released record quantity of eggs on Wednesday night in the river Halda, the lone natural fish breeding sanctuary in the world.
These fishes usually release eggs between March and June, said experts, adding though mother fishes took long time to release eggs this year, its quantity is sufficient.
Halda expert Dr Monjuril Kibria told BSS that the fry-collectors collected over 20,500 kilogram of eggs in the early hours of Thursday.
Reducing of man-made disaster like indiscriminate hunting of mother fishes (egg carrying fishes) and river pollution is the major cause of the huge amount of the eggs released this year, said Halda expert Prof Monjurul Kibria of Zoology Department at Chattogram University, who has been carrying out massive research works on unique character of this river and its fish spawning.
The river Halda is the only natural breeding ground in the world where sweet water species like these fishes release their eggs at a certain period of the monsoon over a century.
Egg collectors Kamal Uddin Sawdagor said that they collected sample eggs from Tuesday morning to afternoon.” Due to the increase in tidal water, the mother fish did not get a favorable environment to lay eggs.
“At low tide at night, the mother fish lays huge eggs. We collected 3-4 kg of eggs by each person. We hoped that we could collect more eggs,” he added.
Ruhul Amin, UNO of Hathazari said that hundreds of boats were collecting eggs in different areas of Halda river under Hathazari and Raozan upazilas of the district. Besides, upazila administration, naval police and fisheries office are also stationed there.
High officials of administration including Deputy Commissioner of Chattogram visited the Halda river.