author(s)
Atiqur Rahman Sunny, Md. Nazmul Hassan, Md. Mahashin and Md. Nahiduzzaman

abstract
Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha) is the national and most important commercial fish species of Bangladesh. Hilsa widely occurs mainly in marine and estuarine environment but started to decline gradually over 30 years and reach to minimum during 1991-1992 that continued up to 2002-2003. Realizing the decreasing trend of hilsa, government took initiative to increase production by implementing regulation on jatka catch and restriction on brood hilsa catch from the breeding season of 2003-2004 under the Protection and Conservation of Fish Act, 1950. Hilsa management strategies help to contribute 11 percent of the total fish production and 1 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bangladesh. Based on secondary literature this study describes biology of hilsa, existing hilsa management strategy and its impact on hilsa. To improve the situation a number of suggestions are elicited for effective management of the hilsa fishery that could be incorporated in the national policy.