Mariculture in Bangladesh: Assessing Present Status, Prospects, and Key Challenges for Unlocking the Blue Economy

Mariculture involves the cultivation of fish, shellfish, seaweed, and other aquatic plants in natural or regulated marine environments. Globally, it is a key driver of the Blue Economy, enhancing food security, generating employment, and supporting sustainable growth. Bangladesh, with 710 km of coastline and 118,813 km² of marine territory, possesses rich biodiversity and productive coastal ecosystems ideal for mariculture. While inland aquaculture has expanded to over 2 million metric tons annually, marine aquaculture remains largely undeveloped. Emerging sectors such as crab culture, seaweed farming, and mollusk cultivation offer high economic and nutritional potential but lack organized development. Despite the evident biological potential and strategic policy emphasis, Bangladesh lacks a comprehensive and coordinated approach to developing its mariculture sector. There remains a critical gap in understanding the sector's current status, emerging opportunities, and the multifaceted challenges hindering its sustainable growth Mariculture in Bangladesh has strong potential to boost coastal livelihoods, food security, and economic growth, but faces constraints such as poor site selection, limited seed and feed, high costs, skill shortages, weak infrastructure, market barriers, and environmental challenges. Strategic actions, including supportive policies, infrastructure development, advanced technologies, capacity building, and public-private investment can transform the sector into a sustainable contributor to the blue economy Status of mariculture production in Bangladesh Seaweed farming Fig. 3. Potential applications of seaweed and their functional roles across commercial sectors. 18 Seaweed identified as suitable for commercial farming Current seaweed production in the country stands at around 400 tonnes annually, contributing approximately USD 0.5 million to the national economy. Finfish farming Fig. 4. Challenges in finfish mariculture in Bangladesh