Bangladesh’s Fishing Ban Leaves Coastal Towns in ‘Nightmare Situation’

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This time of year, Mohammad Shamsuddin normally earns about $120 a month working with the crew of a fishing boat off the coast of Bangladesh.

But on Monday, the central government imposed a 65-day national ban on coastal fishing — the most restrictive ever in Bangladesh, a poor and densely populated country where fish play a central role in the economy and diet.

Mr. Shamsuddin, 30, promptly reduced by about a third the amount of food that he buys for himself, his wife and their three children.

“But I won’t be able to run my family for the next two months with this little amount of savings,” he said by telephone from Bhola District, about a 155-mile drive south from the capital, Dhaka. “And when the savings run dry, my life will be a nightmare.”

Officials say the ban, imposed during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, will be an annual one to help conserve fish and shrimp stocks over the long term. But fishermen across the nation are girding for hardship, and planning protests in Dhaka, if officials do not offer them compensation.

“This is a nightmare situation for a huge number of fishermen and their family members” because prices typically rise in Bangladesh during Ramadan, said Mokter Ahmed, a spokesman for the National Fishermen’s Association in Cox’s Bazar, a port city with about 200,000 fishermen.

He added that if the authorities cannot prevent illegal fishing off the Bangladeshi coast by fleets from other Asian countries, “the ultimate goal of this ban will not be achieved, and only our fishermen will suffer.”

Tensions over the 65-day ban highlight how governments are struggling to balance a need for long-term conservation with those of coastal communities that depend on fish for short-term survival. Fish stocks worldwide have been declining in recent years because of overfishing and ocean warming caused by climate change.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com

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