The team received a fantastic welcome from the University’s Rector, Vice Chancellor and Dean and many other staff and colleagues from the Fisheries Faculty and others within the University. After the official welcome the team presented the project and our various roles within it.
Sazedul and Hassan spoke about the fisheries here in Bangladesh and Hassan told us about the devastation caused by the recent cyclone where 9 people are known to have died and 16 more are still missing. They too will be counted amongst the dead if they are not found within 90 days. To put this into perspective, these fatalities are from two villages alone and this was only one cyclone out of a possible 3 that might hit within a year. These are a few more statistics that highlight the vulnerability of fishermen here and their need to fish for a living under almost any circumstances. The FISH Safety Foundation team will be implementing safety training within these communities that aim to start addressing these issues.
In the afternoon we were treated to lunch where the tasty local hilsa fish made a welcome appearance. We were then honoured to have tea with the University’s rector in his office. Following that, a quick visit around Sazadul’s lab and then back to the bus for our drive to the coast ahead of our field work tomorrow.
Thanks for the fantastic organisation that went into making it such a great day. Looking forward to another good one tomorrow and some more sunshine!
