Landing centers and availability of fish species in fish markets of Mymensingh town

An investigation was carried out on fish landing centers, fish markets and fish fauna of the Mymensingh town to overview the location of the fish landing/entering centers, the source of supply and availability of fisheries organisms in Mymensingh town. The investigation was conducted from October 2009 to September 2010 in sixteen landing centers and markets of Mymensingh town. Among a total of 122 species of fishes were available of which, 113 were finfish and 9 were shellfish. Out of 113 finfish, 85 were freshwater fish species, 14 were exotic species, 14 were marine species, 7 were prawn /shrimps and 2 were mud crab and tortoise. Different types of freshwater fish, marine fish, crustacean and dry fish were found in Mymensingh town. The most abundant freshwater fish species were Catla catla, Labeo rohita, Clarias batrachus, Cirrhinus cirrhosus, Channa punctatus. Among the marine fishes Lates calcarifer, Euthynnus affinis and Mugil cephalus were recorded. The shellfishes, Macrobrachium rosenbergii and Penaeus monodon were most abundant. Significant amount of carps were imported from inside and outside of the districts. Besides the carps, small quantities of other fish, e.g, hilsha, catfish, tilapia, small indigenous fish, prawn and shrimp and other fish including marine can be seen in the fish landing centers and fish markets in Mymensingh town. Trains, buses, trucks and pickups were used as transport of fish to the landing centers from outside of Mymensingh town. Virtually most of the fish (84.6 %) were brought from different areas of the district and adjacent district like Netrokona, Jamalpur, Gazipur and Kishoreganj. The rest (15.4 %) were brought from external source in Mechhua bazar, Natun bazar, Sankipara bazar, Charpara bazar and Kathgola bazar. Main source of the fishes were different ponds, haors, beels and rivers of Mymensingh and adjacent districts.


Introduction
Mymensingh is the biggest town of greater Mymensingh.A number of fish markets and fish landing centers are situated around the town.Fishes from different localities are regularly coming to the town through different transport systems for consumption of the town dwellers and other people.Some marine fishes and prawns are also regularly landing in this town.Information on these aspects of Mymensingh town is scarce.Therefore, it is essential to know the landing or entering of fish and availability of species in Mymensingh town.
The inland aquatic habitats of Bangladesh are rich in faunal diversity containing at least 265 species of finfish, 63 species of prawn, and several species of turtles, tortoises, freshwater mussels and other living aquatic organisms (Rahman, 2005).Bangladesh is also rich in marine fishes having 475 marine finfish species (DoF, 2001).As Mymensingh town is the biggest market of fishes for the consumers, almost all varieties of fishes, both inland (fresh and brackish) and marine water fish species are available in the fish landing centers of Mymensigh town coming from different areas of the country.Fish landing center is the place where different types of fresh and fisheries commodities are accumulated from different sources of water bodies, such as river, beel, pond, gher, estuaries and sea, and these fishes are transferred from here to local markets via different intermediaries and channels (Ali et al., 2004).Fish landing center plays a vital role in quick and smooth disposal of fresh fish and in this regard the fish landing centers of Mymensingh town may be the point of observation to survey the availability of fish species.
Mymensingh region is recognized as the fisheries zone of our country.Many varieties of fish species are available in the fish landing centers of Mymensingh town.Both inland and marine fish species are found in the landing centers of Mymensingh town.But up to now no work has been done on this aspect of this town.The present work was therefore undertaken to know the availability of species in fish landing centers and markets which give a rough knowledge about fish fauna available in this region.It also helps to show the real picture of species abundance of an area and to take the necessary measures if required.

Selection of the study area
There are many markets in and around Mymensingh town among which 16 fish markets and five important fish landing centers were selected for this study.The study area includes Mymensingh town among them; Mechhua bazar, Natun bazar, Sankipara bazar, Charpara bazar, Kathgula bazar, Railway market, Bow bazar, Gudara-ghat, Kashor, Pourasova market, Keshtapur, Kachijhuli fish market and K.R. market, Shesmor, Sutiakhali and Keyotkhali fish market of BAU area.

Landing centers studied
Almost all of the fish landing centers in the study area were surveyed.Although some fish are landed in all the markets still five landing centers are identified in main town such as Mechhua bazar fish landing center, Sankipara bazar, Natun Bazar, Charpara bazar and Kathgula bazar in Mymensigh.

Selection of samples
Total sample size of the study was 120 of which 80 were fish traders, 15 Aratder and 25 were fish farmer.The traders dealing with fish trading were categorized into three groups, namely Bepari, Aratdar and Retailer.

Preparation of interview schedules
Three different types of interview schedules had been carefully prepared (one for Retailer and two for Aratdar and Bepari).

Period of data collection
For the study the data were collected during the months of October 2009 to September 2010.

Visit of landing center and market and collection of data
Several visits were made in each of the landing centers and fish markets of Mymensingh town.As the supply of the fishes varied with seasons collection of data were made in different seasons i.e. throughout the year by repeated visits in the landing centers and markets.

Target group
Fish traders (retailers): For questionnaire survey 80 fish traders were selected from these markets.Interviews were conducted at times convenient to the traders (retailer) at the market.
Fish traders (Aratdar): Aratdars were the biggest fish traders in the marketing channel but were limited in number.
Questionnaire survey and focus group discussion (FGD): For questionnaire interviews, simple random sampling method was followed for 2 aratders and 3 retailers in each study sites per survey.

Results and Discussion
Fish landing center plays a vital role in quick and smooth disposal of fresh fish and in this regard the fish landing centers of Mymensingh town may be the point of observation to survey the status of fish, source of fish and dry fish availability.There are 19 fish markets in Mymensingh town.Among them 16 fish markets and five important fish landing center were visited.A good number of freshwater (99) fish species, marine ( 14) fish species were available to Mymensingh town from different places of the country.However, freshwater fishes were mainly coming from different types of water bodies (river, haor, beel, pond etc.) of greater Mymensingh, marine fishes were coming from Chittagong and Cox's Bazar.List of freshwater, marine and dried fishes with their sources of supply are presented in Table 1, 2, 3.

Table 1. List of freshwater fish and sources of supply observed in the fish landing centers of Mymensingh town during October 2009 to September 2010
Fish Landing centers and fish markets Freshwater fish Sources of freshwater fish in markets Mechhua bazar fish landing center Natun bazar fish landing center Sankipara bazar fish landing center

Table 3. List of freshwater and marine dry fish and their sources of supply observed in the fish landing centers of Mymensingh town during October 2009 to September 2010
A total of 122 species of fishes were found in the fish landing centers of Mymensingh of which 113 were fin fishes and 9 were shellfishes.Among fin fishes, 85 were freshwater fish species, 14 exotic species, 14 marine fish species and 7 were prawn and shrimp species, one crab and one pond tortoise species.
Out of 122 species of fin fishes, 50 species were abundant in winter, 31 species were abundant in summer and the rest were available throughout the year.The fin fish (122) fish species belonged to 43 families were available in the study sites.All the exotic species were freshwater fish species and they were found all the year round as they were being cultured by commercial fish farmers.
There were 9 shellfishes in the landing centers of Mymensingh town market.Shellfishes were found in most of the landing centers and fish market in Mymensingh town.Different types of freshwater fish species, marine fish, crustaceans and exotic fish species and their scientific names, family, common names and local names were presented in Table 4,5,6,7.From the observation of availability of fishes in different landing centers/markets, it was found that 84.6% of the total fish were transported to Mymensingh town from Mymensingh region and other 15.4% from outside of Mymensingh region.Sen (2008) Studied the fish marketing of Madaripur town and noted that 33.66% were carps and 29.33% were SIS and 95 species of fish imported from the rural areas.The fish composition in different fish markets is presented in Table 8.From the study it has been observed that most of the fish (84.6 %) were brought from different areas of the districts and adjacent districts like Netrokona, Gazipur, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Kishoreganj and the rest (15.4 %) were brought from internal source in Mechhua bazar, Natun bazar, Sankipara bazar, Charpara bazar, Kathgola bazar, Railway market and then brought to Keyotkhali bazar, K.R market, Pourashova bazar, Shesmor bazar, Sutiakhali bazar and other fish markets.Main source of these fishes were different ponds, haors, beels and rivers of Mymensingh district and adjacent districts in Mymensingh.Hossain (2009) reported that 29% of fish supplied in the markets were carps, 28% SIS, 2% hilsa, 24% catfish, 4% prawn/ shrimp, 3% tilapia, 2% koi, and 8% others.About 90% of fishes have been transported from the rural areas of the district and adjacent district like Netrokona, Jamalpur and Krishoreganj the rest 10% comes from external sources in Mechhua bazar, Natun bazar, Railway market and Pourashova bazar.
Whereas 100 % of the fish species are brought from different areas of the district and adjacent district in Keyotkhali bazar, K.R. market, Shesmor bazar, and Sutiakhali bazar.In this study a total of 113 fish species were found in the landing centers of Mymensingh town out of 260 freshwater fishes (Rahman, 2005).Chowdhury and Iqubal (2007) carried out an investigation on the fish species availability in the fish landing centers of Dhaka.They observed a total of 98 inland and marine water fish and crustacean species and out of 98, 87 species belonged to fin fish.Among the finfish species, 52 were freshwater species.
Among the 14 species of marine fish species 6 species were found in winter, 2 species in summer and the rest 6 species all the year round.In case of winter season, fish supply was comparatively higher than the rest of the season because the sea remains calm in winter season (Ali et al., 2004).
A total of 9 shellfishes were observed in the landing centers of Mymensingh town where as 11 shellfishes were observed in the landing centers of Dhaka city (Chowdhury and Iqubal 2007).All 14 exotic fishes were freshwater and were found all the year round as they were being cultured by commercial fish farmers.Bhuiyan (1964) identified 71species of fish from Dacca and Doha (1973) collected 106 species of freshwater fish from Tangail and Mymensingh.In view of fish biodiversity Mymensingh seems to be still rich in fish fauna because of available natural water resources in Mymensingh.