Gear Effectiveness, Catch Composition and Co-Management Practices in Oxbow Lakes of Bangladesh

Abstract

In the south-west region of the country there are 500-600 oxbow lakes covering a water area of 5488 hectares. The lakes produce a large quantity of fish and a big number of poor people depend for their livelihood on the fisheries of the lakes, Since I980 the Government of Bangladesh has undertaken two projects on the improvement of management of the lakes; the principal issues were being the derivation of a suitable means of involving the fisherman in the management process and sharing of the benefits of the improved production. Six different lakes, viz. Katgora, Fatepur, Joydia, Nasti, Sasta and Porapara, were subjected to study in the present program. Three lakes, Katgora, Fatepur and Joydia, were under the first phase of the GOB project, and the other three, Nasti, Sasta and Porapara, were in the second phase of the project. The present study was aimed at looking into the scenarios of gears that are used for selective fishing, catch composition for the stocked and the non-stocked forage fishes over different lakes and over different gears used, and the management benefits that are obtained by the stakeholders in the present co-management methods. Data were collected by questionnaire survey and personal interviews of the fishermen. Moreover, various secondary data were used. The data were analysed with the help of statistical tests. Various gears used in the lakes, their design and operation, and their selectivity were discussed. Among them, kochal fishing was the most prominent. Korner fishing and Vulki fishing were next to kochal fishing in prominence. Some other types of gears were also discussed. Stocking design was more or less the same for all the six lakes; however, there were variations in the harvesting records in the different lakes. Stocking size of the fingerlings, the stocking density and the total volume of the stocked biomass were not maintained in the lakes. Species composition of the liberated and unliberated harvested fishes were observed. The contribution of the unliberated wild fishes to the total lake production was recorded for the lakes. In the three lakes (Katgora, Fatepur and Joydia) under the first phase, the co-management methodology did not work well; the production of fish was not remarkable. In the other three lakes (Nasti, Sasta and Porapara) under the second phase, the correlations between DOF, NGOs and the fishermen groups were better. Progress was realized in the improvement of the management conditions, though there were inherent difficulties in the achievement of the objectives in fullest