Hilsa kelee, called the kelee shad, fivespot herring, hilsa, ilish and the razorbelly, is a species of shad native to the coasts and estuaries of the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, generally in tropical waters in the Bay of Bengal. It feeds on diatoms and dinoflagellates, and any other small plankton that it can trap in its gillrakers. Some individuals can reach 35 cm, but most are around 16.5 cm. Hilsa kelee is currently considered the only species in the genus Hilsa, although other species have been included in the genus previously.
| Hilsa kelee | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Clupeiformes |
| Family: | Dorosomatidae |
| Genus: | Hilsa Regan, 1917 |
| Species: | H. kelee
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| Binomial name | |
| Hilsa kelee (Cuvier, 1829)
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| Synonyms[citation needed] | |
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The species is commercially fished in Bangladesh, with 221,899 t landed in 2000, and 35,483 t landed in 2008.[1]
Hilsa are the national fish of Bangladesh and state fish of West Bengal, and are an important culinary ingredient in Bengali cuisine. Bangladesh exports 70% of the world's supply of the fish. In West Bengal, hilsa are cooked in a special mustard sauce as a delicacy known as Ilish Bhapa, Ilish Polao, and Shorshe Ilish during the Durga Puja festival. This has led to the export of hilsa to be sometimes used as a tool of diplomatic pressure. In September 2024, Bangladesh's interim government led by Muhammad Yunus instated an export ban on hilsa ahead of Durga Puja in what was seen as a diplomatic rebuke for New Delhi's political backing of Sheikh Hasina. Hasina went into exile in India after her removal from power in the end of August 2024 during the 2024 Bangladesh quota reform movement. This ban was not the first. Bangladesh also imposed an export ban on hilsa in 2012 following water-sharing disputes with India, however this ban was lifted in January 2018. Hasina's government made a habit of "gifting" hundreds of tonnes of hilsa as a diplomatic gift ahead of Durga Puja.[2]
References
edit- ^ "Hilsa kelee". Fisheries Global Information System. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 23 December 2010.
- ^ Lodhi, Areesha. "Fishy diplomacy: How a hilsa ban added to India-Bangladesh tensions". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
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