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Once declining fish stocks in Lake Victoria bounce back

This is through working with a section of fishermen and chairpersons of gazetted landing sites, closing of un-gazetted landing sites, destroying illegal fishing gears as well as arresting and prosecuting fishermen and dealers in immature fish.

Another UPDF officer, who preferred anonymity, said “illegal fishing and export of immature fish was rampant in Masaka and Kalangala Islands for export to Rwanda through Mpondwe border point as well as Ishasha and Bunagana to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) but that has been curtailed.”

The source said the massive crackdown on immature fish dealers, including the well-known rally driver Ponsiano Lwakataka, who was accused of running stores of immature fish in Kasensero in Kyebe Sub-county in Rakai District and Mpondwe in Kasese District, for export to Congo.

Lwakataka was charged with illegal possession of immature fish in March this year following arrest at Masaka High Court by the UPDF as he attempted to pick his wife and brother who had been granted bail on the same charges by Masaka Magistrate’s Court.

Fisheries experts say a six month ban on harvesting immature fish is sufficient to allow them grow.

However, fish stocks appear to have been on a recovery trend even before the UPDF deployment, according to sector experts.

Presenting a paper at the African Great Lakes Conference in May this year in Entebbe, titled: Dynamics of Fish Stocks of Commercial Importance in Lake Victoria, East Africa: Implications for Management”, Robert Kayanda, the director at Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFIRI), said acoustic surveyshad showed an increase in the total biomass ( the total weight of a group or  stock of  fish)   in the lake from 2.9 million tons of fish in 2014 to almost 3 .2 Million tons in 2015, with majority being dagaa.

Nile Perch, which was introduced in the lake in the 1950’s, reduced from 1.6 million tonnes in 2000 to 1.1million tonnes in 2015, while dagaa rose considerably over the last decade from  20% of the total stock (2.7million tonnes)  to 41 % during the same period under review, he said.

However, he noted that there had been little stock assessment for the Tilapia fish.

Fish production

Data from the Directorate of Fisheries Resources in the Agriculture Ministry also shows that the total fish captured in Uganda fell by 14.6% from 461,730 tonnes in 2015 to 394, 224 tonnes in 2016 as a result of reduced catches of Nile Perch.

However, catches of Tilapia and small fish types increased. Overall, capture of fisheries from the lake remained the major contributor to total fish production, accounting for 77%.

On the other hand, aquaculture production grew by 5.4% from 111,033 metric tonnes in 2014 to 117,000 metric tonnes in 2015.

On the export front, fish volumes to the international market decreased from 18,785 tonnes in 2015 to 16,168 tonnes in 2016, with the majority of the volumes destined to the European Union.

Consequently, this led to a decline in export earnings from US$134.791 million to US$113.0 million during the same period under review.

This, however, is still far below the 36,616 tonnes exported in 2005, earning the country over US$143 million.

Fish factories re-open

 The Independent has also established that two fish processing firms that had closed their operations more than a decade ago citing reduction in fish have since resumed operations. These includes; Gomba Fish Industries in Jinja and Four Ways popularly known as Ngege Limited in Luzira, a Kampala suburb signalling relieve to fish sub-sector. More than half of the country’s 23 fish processing and exporting firms have closed their operations in the past decade partly as a result of declining fish supplies.

“We may not have the figures yet but the fact is that fish production in Lake Victoria has improved since the UPDF was deployed there,” Ovia Katiti Matovu, executive director at the Uganda Fish Processors and Exporters Association, told The Independent.

However, she noted that competition between local demand and fish processing firms for fish remains high amidst decline in fish prices.  Uganda mainly exports Nile Perch while Tilapia is sold to local and regional markets.

“We have a very big difference before and now since UPDF was deployed on the lake; catches of large fish have increased,” Bachi Sudaice, a fisherman at Masese Fish Landing Site says, holding a Nile Perch weighing more than 20kgs.

He said the presence of strong surveillance on the lake had resulted into a reduction in the catch of small fish amidst high demand in the neighbouring countries such as Kenya.

He added that there’s also need to crack down on dealers of illegal nets to as to completely eliminate illegal fishing activities.

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