The fish looks a lot like a guitar. The fishermen of Cox's Bazar who go to the Bay of Bengal call it 'Pitambari fish'. This is an endangered species of fish caught in Bangladesh. The fish is called 'Giant Guitarfish' all over the world. The world's zoologists have known for a long time that there are 11 species of this species of fish. Another species of this fish was recently found in Cox’s Bazar, a new addition to the fish species in the world.
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Professor Kazi Ahsan Habib and researcher. Zaidul Islam jointly discovered the fish. This is a new addition to the 34,500 species of fish in the world.
The Bangladeshi scientist named the fish 'Bangladeshi Giant Guitarfish'. The entire study was conducted in the Aquatic Bioresource Research Laboratory of the Department of Fisheries Biology and Genetics, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University. The species is identified using the body structure, external shape, and DNA barcoding method of the fish. Last Tuesday, a research article was published in the science journal 'Jutaxa'. There, the fish has been recognized as one of the new fish species in the world.
According to fisheries scientists, the guitarfish is basically a species of fish between water lily and shark species. It is found mainly in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and Bay of Bengal. Soup made from the fins of this fish is very popular in East Asian countries including China, Thailand and Japan. As a result, this fish is caught and sold at a good price. That is why the number of these fish is decreasing all over the world very fast.
Professor Kazi Ahsan Habib, head of the research team for fish species identification, said in the first light that this endangered species has been found in the northern part of the Bay of Bengal. As a result, it should not be caught and it should be included in the list of Scheduled, Killed and Unaccounted for in the Bangladesh Wildlife Conservation Act.
Professor Kazi Ahsan Habib, the main discoverer of the fish for his significant contribution to marine biodiversity and their DNA barcoding research in the Western Pacific and Bay of Bengal, scientifically named the fish after his PhD supervisor, Professor Eunholi of the Korean Institute of Oceanography and Technology. The scientific name of the fish is Glaucostegus younholeei. The fish belongs to the class Rhinobatiformes, of the family Glaucostegidae.
The species in this family are called giant guitarfish. With the addition of this new species, there are eight known species of giant guitarfish in the world. All but two species live in sea salt water. However, the two species occasionally roam in some brackish water.
According to the IUCN, an international alliance of nature organizations, the world's guitar fish are endangered. The company has taken initiative with all concerned to save the guitarfish in maintaining the balance of nature.
Alifa Binte Haque, an assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries at Dhaka University and a researcher on shark-leaf fish, told Prothom Alo that the fish lives in shallower areas of the ocean. It is found 20 to 30 meters deep in the sea. As a result, it was caught in the net with a spear. As a result, fishermen need to be made aware to protect it.
The fish was first discovered by the research team in June 2019 during a study funded by the Bangladesh University Grants Commission (UGC) on the identification and conservation status of shark and water lily species in Bangladesh's marine waters through DNA barcoding. Later, until August 2020, the team found the fish a total of 18 times. But in the beginning, it was not confirmed that it was a new species as it looks like any other fish of the guitar species.
According to the research report, the fish is 630 to 933 millimeters in length. It was first identified by the Fisheries Landing Center of Bangladesh Fisheries Development Corporation. The body color of the fish is brown and gray.
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