Prioritizing Fished Stocks for Monitoring and Management: Insights from Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) Gillnet Fishery of Bangladesh

The artisanal gillnet fishers of Bangladesh have been targeting the country’s iconic flagship species, Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha), to sustain their livelihood. Although it is evident that higher fishing pressure resulted in stock depletion of both targeted and non-targeted species, inadequate biological and catch information on fish stocks in Bangladesh limits the quantitative risk assessment for captured species. In this study, the Productivity Susceptibility Analysis (PSA) approach—a semi-quantitative risk evaluation approach that used both the intrinsic biological characteristic of stock and their susceptibility due to fishing to generate risk score—was used to categorize the 75 species of Hilsa gillnet fishery of Bangladesh for prioritizing their monitoring and management. Results revealed that seventeen non-targeted bycatch species of Hilsa gillnet fishing from inland (7 species; e.g., Pangasius pangasius, Plotosus canius, Sperata aor etc.) and marine habitat (10 species; e.g., Leptomelanosoma indicum, Netuma thalassina, Scomberoides commersonnianus etc.) were determined to be at high risk due to fishing. Since there is a strong association exists between the exploitation rate (>0.5 = overfishing status) and the risk score (>1.8= overfishing status) derived from PSA, this study suggested that species with a risk score over 1.8 needed urgent conservation actions for their long-term sustainability.