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Halda sees fish spawning

Fishermen hope to get 250kg fish fry from spawns they collected

Pranabesh Chakraborty, Ctg
After a month-long wait, indigenous sweet water fish including ruhi, katol, mrigel and kalbaush released eggs in the Halda river yesterday.
Incessant torrential rains in Chittagong on Sunday caused flash floods and strong current in the river, creating congenial atmosphere for mother fish to release spawn.
The Halda, which flows through Hathazari and Raozan upazilas of Chittagong, is one of the country's major natural sweet water fish breedingspots.
Hundreds of spawn collectors with their boats and nets started collecting the eggs in a festive mood since early in the morning.
"We hope around 250 kilograms of four-day-old fish fries can be produced from this year's collected spawn," said Halda expert Md Manzoorul Kibria. "Only 70 kgs of fish fry were collected last year and 354 kgs in 2012," he said.
Fishermen expect that a good amount of spawn will be collected this time. Their collection was poor during the first phase of spawning passed in April.
Mother fish did not release eggs in the first phase due to the absence of heavy shower, said Kibria, also an associate professor of Chittagong University.
Different natural factors like temperature of water, strong current and thunderstorm create a suitable environment for laying eggs in the river, he said.
Around 700 fishermen with their 264 boats collected around 1,100 tubs of eggs from 4:30 am to 9:00 am, he added.
Fishermen said egg collectors kept a watchful eye on the river as the torrential rains coupled with thunderstorms continued for many hours on Sunday.
Around 3:30 am yesterday, they noticed that mother fish started releasing spawn at different points covering around 10-km area of the Halda.
The points include Napiterghona, Ankurighona, Azimerghat, Garduara and Ram Das Ghat.
"We were waiting for the moment," said Md Firoj, a spawn collector of Pashchim Garduara.
"I engaged five boats to collect 20 buckets of eggs," said Sridham Jaladas, another local fisherman.
At the beginning of April, indigenous fish species migrate from different rivers including the Kamaphuli and Sangu out into the Halda to spawn.
After collecting the eggs, fishermen nurture those in mud-made pots and also in cisterns of eight hatcheries established by the fisheries department, said spawn collector Firoj.
After 96 hours, the eggs transform into fries which are then sold to the fry collectors or hatchery owners at Tk 50,000 to 80,000 per kg, said local fishermen.
Constructing rubber dams and unplanned sluice gates for irrigation and discharge of industrial wastes are destroying the environment for spawning in the river, said Halda expert Kibria.