Current Marine Fisheries Production Status and Opportunity in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh has sovereign rights over almost 118,813 km2 in the Bay of Bengal, which is 81% of its total area. The country has a vast marine area, but its marine fisheries production is only 15% of the national production. More than 60% of the world’s fisheries production comes from the marine sector, but in Bangladesh, the scenario is the opposite, although the country is enough potential. This study is designed to find the year-wise marine fisheries production trend and decompose the production into two sub-sectors called artisanal and industrial. Year-wise fisheries production data, from 2002 to 2021, are collected from the “Year Book of Fisheries Statistics of Bangladesh” available on the website of the department of fisheries of the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Marine fisheries production in Bangladesh is increasing gradually, but the percentage share in national production is decreasing gradually. Marine production was 22.0% of the total in 2002, but it dropped to 14.7% in 2021. In 20 years of marine production, from 2002 to 2021, the average contribution of artisanal fisheries was 88.1%, while the contribution of industrial fisheries was only 11.9%. The standard deviation of artisanal and industrial fisheries is 0.51 and 0.36, respectively, indicating artisanal has high variability than industrial, but the growth rate of industrial is more fluctuated than artisanal. To increase its marine fisheries, policymakers of Bangladesh should develop a separate marine policy and allocate more funds for research and technological support.