Culture-based Fisheries in Bangladesh

Culture-based fisheries have relatively high production, but need strictly enforced closed seasons to allow fish to grow, an activity which excludes poor subsistence fishers. However, in some places people who participated with the expectations of considerable personal gains ceded when more resilient lower-cost practices such as sanctuaries were adopted. Local equity issues are partly mitigated when poor people are allowed to catch small (non-stocked species) for food. In the floodplains, public stocking has not been sustained as access to these larger open systems is difficult to control and participants are unable to capture enough benefits or raise funds from the wider community, while landowners tend to take advantage of the situation and catch more of the stocked fish. In smaller, more closed waterbodies, groups of fishers are able to control access and can profit, but the risks and need for capital are high.