Over 300kg of baby hilsa have been seized from fishermen in Diamond Harbour following a raid by a team of senior officials of the fisheries department. Catching or selling hilsa weighing below 500g is banned in Bengal to ensure that the fish gets to grow and can lay eggs, officials in the fisheries department said.
Around 3.5 quintal (over 300kg) of small hilsa were seized from fishermen near Nagendrabazar in Diamond Harbour on Friday. The catch was later sold through auction, which was conducted in the presence of police and members of the fishermen’s association,” said Piyal Sardar, additional director of fisheries, South 24-Parganas. After the state government’s ban on hilsa fishing ended on June 14 (every year it begins on April 15 and stays for 61 days), fishermen from Kakdwip, Namkhana, Frasergunj and Bakkhali started venturing into the waters on trawlers.