Bangladesh - National Report 2019

Bangladesh blessed with vast coastal and marine fisheries resources. A large number of commercially important fishes have long been exploited which are of high export values and consume locally as precious item. Tuna and tuna like other highly migratory species have become high pace in the priority list to the government of Bangladesh for a couple of years especially after demarcated sea boundary with the neighbours that lead to open up the access of Bangladeshi fishers to the Area Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) of high seas. But, it is not possible yet to take this opportunity by harnessing tuna and tuna like bill fishes from expanded high seas amid initiation stage of such fishing industry. Simultaneously, the study of tuna and tuna like fishes of Bangladesh marine waters are one of the most poorly studied areas of the world although it possesses high potentiality. Proper attention is needed in every aspects of exploitation, handling and processing, export and marketing as well as in biological and institutional management strategies. Basically, there is no specific tuna fishery in Bangladesh. Tuna are by catch of industrial trawlers and artisanal gill netters. In quantity, tuna comprises about 0.11% (120.19 mt) of the industrial catch and 0.19% (199.05 mt) of catch is mackerel in the year 2018-19. This report, thereby tried to articulate in a frame as per format of commission incorporating a salient feature of the marine fisheries of Bangladesh