It is observed from the available information that a good number of gears as described by Ahmed (1954) are not in existence at present. The fisherman have discarded them in course of time considering their efficiency and durability. Among the presently recorded 96 types of gears the consultant recorded 7 new types of gear which were not reported by previous workers. These gears are phoot jal, patpati jal, paia jal (gill net); dool-chot (seine net), sruti jal (bag net), bhuri-jal (clasp net) and goria jal (dragged net).
Of the total rears the catch compositions of 13 gears viz., chandi, current, dora, dhara, daba, lengta, gara, gulti, kona, shangla, behundi, vasha jals and hazari borshi, shrimp chai and pangus/rita chai may be considered as a first category of single species gears, the catch of which comprises almost 90-100% of a particular species of fish or shrimp.
The above mentioned gears are specific to Hilsa ilisha except vasha jal, hazari borshi, behundi jal and shrimp chai and pangus/rita chai. Hazari borshi is only specific to catch tortoise, chai trap and behundi jal are specific to shrimp only, whereas pangus and rita chai are specific to Pangasius pangasius and Rita rita respectively and vasha jal is specific to tilapia in Kaptai lake.
The gears such as lau, vim, katla, patpati jal- no. 1, kachki, mola, moi, chewa, poa, goria, bhati, berer savar and jeol borshi may be regarded as the second category of single species gears, the catch of which comprises about 70-89% of any particular species of shrimp or fish. Among these gears, lau jal and bhati jal are specific to H. ilisha, vim, moi, berer savar and goria jals are specific to shrimp, mola jal to A. mola, kechki to C. soborna, Katla to Catla catla, vasha jal and patati jal no. 1 to Tilapia niloticus, bacha jal to E. bacha, kajolee jal to Ailia coila and zeol borshi to W. attu.
The gears like paia jal, shanda jal, lau jal, dal jal, behundi jal, utter jal, jagat ber jal, moi jal , katla jal, patpati jal, tengra jal, jaki jal, apsha jal, chara borshi, joomka borshi, jeol borshi and spears are used to catch medium to large fishes. So these gears may be considered as medium to large fish gears.
The paia, current, kona ber, jagat ber, masharee ber, khara, dharma, utter, jhaki, kochal, pine, jhap, banduri, thela, kathi, horhori and sruti jals are used to catch variety of fishes and they may be regarded as multi species gears.
The kechki jal, jagat ber jal, savar jal, ber jal, behundi jal, kona ber jal, current jal, masharee jal, vim jal and pungus/rita chai are regarded as detrimental gears.
The gears operated by the fishermen are not size selective. The mesh size varies extremely from gear to gear, even sometimes within the same type of gear. The extensive and intensive use of these gears cause indiscriminate capture of fishes of different sizes which hamper the fish production. Therefore, it becomes necessary to make them uniform as far as possible for judicious exploitation and proper management of the open-water fisheries.
The seasons or period of use of fishing gears were found to vary with the types of the waterbody. However, chapila, mal, kajuri, vasha, katla, patpati, tengra, kechki, moi, jhap, dak, mola, jak, chewa, poa and horhori jals are operated by the fishermen between September to May. Jhaki, current, goria, ber and par jals are found to be all seasons gears, and the use of other gears are found to vary between April to December.
