Impacts of fishers using harmful gears on biodiversity of fish and prawn in Borobila Beel, Rangpur, Bangladesh

Inland capture fisheries of Bangladesh are an important source of animal protein and livelihood for their population. Further, valuable habitat such beel (natural depression), floodplain, and rivers are also extremely susceptible to biodiversity degradation. Considering the importance of biodiversity for sustainable management of natural resources, the present study was conducted to assess the impacts of fishers on fish and prawn biodiversity in Borobila beel for 20 months. Borobila beel is located at Pirganj Upazila under Rangpur district. It is a semi-closed beel connected with other beels and rivers. A total of 58 species of fish and prawns belonging to 21 Families and 42 genera were recorded from the beel, out of which 57 were fish species (52 indigenous and 5 exotic species) and remaining one were prawn. Macrobrachium spp. and Puntius sophore were found to be dominant in number and in weight, respectively in Borobila beel. Three types of fishers:  full-time, part-time and subsistence classified based on their relative time spent for fishing were found in the beel and were found to use four categories of gears. These gears were net, trap, wounding gear and other miscellaneous gears. Highest 23 types of gears were observed in Borobila beel. Maximum number of fish and prawn species were recorded in the catch of full-time fishers using nets found in all the beel. Whereas, subsistence fishers has little access in the beel as the fishing was more or less controlled by the lessee. Results of the present study indicated that small fish and prawn species form major portion of capture fisheries in Borobila beel. The results of this study are expected to provide baseline information on impacts of fishers using harmful gears on biodiversity of fish and prawn for eventual sustainable management of beel resources.