In what is sure to be welcome news to the amateur fishing community, the Eco Park authorities have decided to allow anglers to take home the fish they catch from the next edition of the contest.
The announcement was made at Bengal Angler’s Forum (BFA)’s ninth catch-and-release contest at the park last month. “We had built jetties in the Eco Park lake hoping to promote angling as a recreational activity but it became a messy affair with commercial fishermen flooding the space. We were forced to discontinue angling,” said Debashis Sen, the managing director of Hidco.
Then Bengal Angler’s Forum (BFA) approached Eco Park to host an event where anglers would immediately release their catch into the water. The authorities accepted their proposal and the event has been taking place in New Town since 2016.
“But several seats in the audience today are empty and I believe the excitement would be more if participants could take home their catch. There is a big demand for that from participants. So we have decided to formulate new rules to allow this. We hope to finalise the same by January and enforce it by March or April,” said Sen. “We want to turn this into a high-value fishing location. Why should residents head to Thailand to fish when we have great facilities here?”
An angler poses with his catch before releasing it back in the water Brinda Sarkar
An official in charge of fishery at Eco Park said the lake has varieties like carps, chitol and rupchanda. “We throw nets and catch fish here twice a week, selling the produce in the market. We catch about 10,000kg of fish a month,” he said. “We also invest a lot in releasing fingerlings and on their food and upkeep.”
Sustainable fishing
The news was music to the ears of the anglers. “The fish varieties available in this lake mainly spawn in rivers and so it wouldn’t make much difference if anglers took home one or two to eat. What we oppose is each person taking home 30-40kg, which is easily the case in certain other water bodies. Besides, here we could compensate by releasing fresh fingerlings in the water,” said Arindam Ghosh, founder of BAF.
The forum seeks to protect waters from over-fishing. “West Bengal is no 1 in fingerling production but Andhra Pradesh takes the cake with adult fish. We need to let our fingerlings grow to adult size. Only then should they be extracted and eaten,” said Ghosh.
Most participants in the contest supported catch-and-release. “This is a good concept. We’re always taking from nature and this is a rare chance to return something,” said Tousif Ahamed, who won an award for having caught the maximum fish. “I caught four above 500g and more than 20 under that weight but those aren’t counted in the competition,” he said.
The overall winner was Ali Hossain, who caught the largest fish across the weekend. He was reticent but his brother Rakibul Molla said they also go fishing in Beleghata lake and Salt Lake’s Central Park, though the latter has been out of bounds for the past few years. “At those venues, we are allowed to take home our catch. Catch-and-release is fine as a contest but if the fishing ticket is costly, we should be allowed to take home the fish,” said the man whose brother had caught a 3.62kg fish.
Hidco managing director Debashis Sen hands over the winner’s trophy to Ali Hossain. His brother Rakibul Molla stands next to him Brinda Sarkar
Angling as sport
The contestants were spread along the waterside from the Eiffel Tower replica to the Japanese garden. There were 19 contestants on the first day and 34 on the next. Participants had come not just from the districts but even from Bangladesh.
“I’ve come to India before but this is my first time coming to fish. The ambience of Eco Park makes it worth the journey,” said Ehsan Mahmood, who however, doubted how successful catch-and-release would be in his country.
“Usually when we go fishing, our families wait for the catch. But then we’re taking home the catch round the year. Today we won’t feel bad about releasing the fish as the real fun is the beautiful and peaceful ambience,” smiled Bikash Karmakar of South Dinajpur.
Sumit Mullick, who belongs to the fifth generation of traders running the angling store New Kanto Brothers in Sealdah, said the sport was in ascent. “Previously there would be demand for rods, reels, lines and hooks only in monsoon, which is the peak fishing season. We’d have to shift to selling other sports equipment the rest of the year but now anglers come calling in all seasons. The youth is into it too. But we must encourage them to release the fish again,” Mullick said.
Is allowing anglers to take home the catch a step in the wrong direction? Write to saltlake@abp.in