Diversity of fish fauna and fishing gears used in the River Banar, Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was conducted during February 2017- January 2018. Data were collected by
Questionnaire Interview (QI), Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and cross-check Interview of
fishermen and resource persons from 8 villages by the river Banar under 4 Unions of Fulbaria
Upazila, under Mymensingh District. A total of 62 species of fish and shellfish under 10 Orders
and 24 Families were recorded from the Banar river. Among the Orders recorded from the
studied river, Cypriniformes (30.65%) was the most dominant Order followed by Siluriformes
(29.04%), Perciformes (22.58%), Synbranchiformes (6.45%), and Decapoda (3.23%).
Cyprinidae was the most dominant family contributing 17 species. The availability status of
identified species were common (40.32%), seasonal (20.97%), rare (17.74%) and very rare
(20.97%). Seventeen threatened fish species were recorded from the river in which 8 species
were endangered, 7 were vulnerable and 2 were critically endangered. Among the threatened fish
species, endangered (47.06%) was found to be most abundant followed by vulnerable (41.18%)
and critically endangered (11.76%). Fishermen were found to use 10 types of the fishing gears.
Use of illegal fishing gears, overfishing, decreasing depth of river and katha fishing were
observed as major threats for fish diversity in the river