To ensure safe breeding of mother hilsa during their main spawning season, hilsa fishing will be banned nationwide for 22 days, from October 8 to October 29. Transport, storage, marketing, buying, selling and exchange of hilsa will also be banned during this period.
To enforce the ban, law enforcement agencies and the fisheries department will step up joint operations in hilsa’s main breeding areas. The government will provide VGF food assistance to fishermen who refrain from fishing during the ban.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Task Force Committee on Hilsa Resource Development, held to implement the Mother Hilsa Conservation Campaign-2026 and set the timing of the fishing ban during the main breeding season. The meeting was held on Tuesday (September 15) at the ministry’s conference room, chaired by Fisheries, Livestock and Agriculture Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid.
Under the decision, hilsa fishing in the country’s rivers and at sea will be completely halted from October 8 to October 29. Transport, storage, marketing, buying, selling and exchange of hilsa will also be banned during this period. Operations will be carried out across the country to stop hilsa fishing and marketing in defiance of the ban.
In his remarks as chair, Minister Mohammad Amin Ur Rashid said no leniency would be shown in protecting mother hilsa to ensure sustainable production. He said monitoring and operations must be further strengthened in the main breeding areas, including Barishal, Chandpur and Bhola.
He said the district administration, river police, coast guard and fisheries department must work together to strictly implement the fishing ban during the breeding season, adding that extra vessels and logistical support would be provided at hilsa hotspots if needed.
The minister also ordered increased monitoring of ice factories, wholesale markets and other markets to stop the marketing of illegally caught hilsa. He said strict operations must be carried out to remove illegal nets from hilsa breeding grounds, including at the Chandpur estuary, adding that no opportunity for fishing or marketing should be allowed under any circumstances during the banned period.
He said that if all relevant agencies keep up their coordinated efforts to protect mother hilsa, hilsa production would rise further in the coming season.
State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, MP, said at the meeting that research must be used to identify why hilsa production keeps falling, and that necessary measures should be taken after pinpointing weaknesses or gaps in current efforts. Stressing the need to stop illegal nets, he said effective steps must be taken to halt the production and sale of banned nets, and that fishermen’s representatives, alongside the government, should help raise awareness among fishermen not to buy such nets. He said the government is providing incentives to fishermen to keep them from fishing during the banned period, and that monitoring would be increased to ensure this support reaches genuine fishermen.
Calling it a matter of concern that falling hilsa production has made it necessary to import fish from abroad, the state minister said the cause of this situation must be identified and addressed through coordinated efforts involving all stakeholders, with an integrated action plan to be drawn up to protect hilsa as a national resource and GI product and to boost its production.
The meeting was attended by Fisheries and Livestock Ministry Secretary Md Delwar Hossain, Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation Chairman Md Mir Hossain, Department of Fisheries Director General Dr Md Khaled Kanak, and Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute Director General Dr Md Latiful Islam, along with representatives of the cabinet division, shipping ministry, commerce ministry, district administration, RAB, coast guard, air force, river police and BGB, as well as senior officials of the ministry and fisheries department, a representative from Dhaka University, and representatives of the National Fishermen’s Association.