a compliance study of Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture - The United ...

Seraj1 INTRODUCTION1.1 BackgroundBangladesh is a fortunate country in terms of soil fertility and water resources. It is located inthe North-Eastern part of South Asia between 20º34' and 26º36' north latitude and 88º01' and92º41' east longitude. Its land fertility and favourable tropical climate made favourableconditions for the production of various crops and thus the economy is based on agriculture.The diverse water resources led to fisheries being an important sector of the Bangladeshieconomy. Bangladesh has many inland fresh water resources including hundreds ofinterconnected rivers and canals, oxbow lakes, lakes, reservoirs and seasonal flood-plainscovering over 4.0 million ha (Table 1). These open, semi-closed or seasonal fresh waterresources provide suitable habitats for numerous wild fish and shellfish species. Bangladeshalso has large marine and brackish water resources including coastal plains, tidal flats,estuaries and inshore and offshore waters extending 714 km to the Bay of Bengal and anExclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 164,000 sq km which is not largely exploited yet (DoF,2007). The coastal zone features several natural mangrove forest ecosystems (eg. worldfamous Sundarbans mangrove) that support rich aquatic biodiversity.Table 1: Fisheries resources of Bangladesh and production during the period July 2006-June 2007 (DoF, 2008b).ResourcesInlandCaptureFisheriesRiver and estuaries (with Sunderbanscanals)Water Production inarea (ha) metric tonnes(mt)1,031,563 154,709Beels (large reservoirs) 114,161 75,137Kaptai lake 68,800 8,085Flood plain (Seasonal water area) 2,832,792 768,830Sub-total inland capture 4,047,316 1,006,761 41Aquaculture Ponds and ditches 305,025 811,954Baor (oxbow lakes) 5,488 4,698Shrimp farms 217,877 129,160Sub-total aquaculture 528,390 945,812 39Inland fisheries & Aquaculture total 4,575,706 1,952,573 80MarinecapturefisheriesIndustrial Fisheries (Trawl) 35,391(%) TotalproductionArtisanal Fisheries 452,047Sub-total Marine capture 487,438 20Country Total 2,440,011 100%Fisheries play a vital role in food supply, employment and foreign exchange earning ofBangladesh. It is one of the most productive and dynamic sectors in Bangladesh. About 1.2million people are directly and 12 million people are indirectly involved in fisheries andaquaculture of Bangladesh. In the fiscal year 2007–2008 this sector contributed 60% ofanimal protein to the 142 million Bangladeshi citizens and 4.8% of total GDP of the country(BBS 2008).Bangladeshi fisheries and aquaculture are characterized by high species diversity. There are260 freshwater and 475 marine fish species, 25 prawn and 36 shrimp species, 4 species oflobsters, several species of cephalopods, marine mammals and other wildlife species found inUNU-Fisheries Training Programme 1