Fishermen are catching Ilish across the country although the government has imposed an 11-day ban on netting, sales and transportation of the fish.
Fisheries Department imposed the ban from October 5 with a view to ensure safe spawning of the popular fish during the peak breeding period.
Mobile courts in the last four days have sentenced a total of 125 fishermen to jail and filed 219 cases in connection with violation of Ilish fishing ban in Barisal division.
A total of 186 mobile courts carried out 248 drives till yesterday and 94 fishermen were also fined Tk5.23 lakh. The jail terms ranged from seven days to a year.
Shamsul Alam, divisional engineer at the Department of Fisheries and duty officer of the control room opened in Barisal to monitor possible violation of the ban, provided the statistics.
“As Ilish lays plenty of eggs at this time of the year, the government imposed the ban to enhance production,” he added.
During the mobile court drives conducted by the Department of Fisheries along with administrative officials and law enforcers, 515 fishing stations, 1,416 wholesale fish stores and 864 fish markets were inspected.
In addition to punishing fishermen, 2.2635 tonnes of Ilish, 16.47 lakh metres long fishing nets worth Tk380.59 lakh, and 13 fishing boats were seized during the drives.
In Bhola, forty five fishermen were detained for catching Ilish defying the government ban in Daulatkhan, Tajumuddin, Lalmohan uapzilas of the district on Wednesday.
Among them, 41 fishermen were sentenced to different jail terms through mobile courts. They are the residents of Daulatkhan upazila.
Police, Coastguard and fisheries department officials launched drive in the Meghna river in Daulatkhan upazila and detained 15 fishermen along with 13,000 meters current net and a boat.
Besides, 8 fishermen were detained from Choumohoni point of Tajumuddin upazila and 10 fishermen from Meghna and Tetulia river of Lalmohon upazila.
In Chandpur, a mobile court detained 17 fishermen and sentenced them to one-year imprisonment.
A high official of district administration seeking anonymity told the Dhaka Tribune that they could not stop Ilish catching despite the drive.