Md. Abubakar Siddiq¹, Md. Idris Miah¹, Zoarder Faruque Ahmed¹, Md. Asadujjaman^1,

The present investigation was carried out to determine existing fish species status, fish catch composition, fishing seasons, fishing gears, fishers socio-economic welfare and the fisheries management practices of Dogger beel in Hajigonj Upazilla of Bangladesh. The study revealed that a total of 58 fish species belong to 21 families under 9 orders were identified in the beel. Among them 44 species were small indigenous species (SIS) and the rest 14 species were large where 6 of them were exotic species. The maximum fish species (16) were under Cyprinidae family. Four families (Ambassidae, Channidae, Anabantidae and Palaeomonidae) represented 4 species each and another four families (Clupedaei, Schilbeidae, Bagridae and Mastacembelidae) represented 3 species each, and rest thirteen families represented 1 to 2 species each. Thirteen different kinds of fishing gears were identified under 5 major groups including 5 nets (current jal, ber jal, thela jal, jakhi jal and dharma jal), 3 traps (unta chai, bitte chai and icha chai), 2 hooks (chip borshi and chara borshi), 2 spears (teta without hooks and teta with hooks) and khata/zag in the beel. Three types of fishers were engaged in fishing in the Dogger beel. The highest catch was recorded in October (402 kg/month) and the lowest catch was recorded in June (213 kg/month). The highest number of fishers (85) observed in the monsoon period and the lowest number of fishers (33) observed in the dry season involved in fishing. Most of the fishers used current jal and spears where few of them were used dharma jal for fishing. The maximum 45% of the fishermen had medium size family, 32.5% had large size family and the rest 22.5% had small size family. Among the total fishermen 45% had primary or higher level education and 32.5% can sign their name while about 22.5% of them were illiterate. The average annual income of the professional fishers was BDT 61,375 only.

present status, fish, fishers, fisheries and Dogger beel