Johannesburg – East Africa’s iconic Lake Victoria is facing dwindling fish stock levels forcing several East African states to introduce stringent measures to protect the remaining stocks.
Uganda, which controls 45 percent of Africa’s largest freshwater lake, has deployed the military to guard its territorial waters and keep foreigners away, Kenya’s East African daily reported on Monday.
This was only one of the emergency measures introduced. Another option included closing-down the fishing season to allow the fish to breed and replenish themselves, despite growing demand for the fish in Uganda and neighbouring Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Anthony Taabu Munyaho, the director of Uganda’s National Fisheries Resources Research Institute, said a six-month fishing ban would allow fish to mature.
Uganda shares Lakes Albert and Edward with the DRC on the western border. Lake Albert accounts for 15 percent of the fishing business.
Kenya controls only six percent of Lake Victoria while Tanzania controls the largest share at 49 percent as well as having the highest number of fishermen on the lake.
Dwindling food sources and growing poverty levels have driven more people to turn to fishing for survival, especially in the DRC. This has exacerbated excessive fishing including catching immature, undersize fish leading to the closing down of 13 Ugandan fish processing factories alone.
East Africa has 36 fish processing factories around Lake Victoria, but only 18 are operating — and below capacity. In order to ensure that member states fish sustainably, and share Lake Victoria’s resources equitably, the East African Community (EAC) launched the Lake Victoria Fisheries Management Plan III (FMP III) 2016-2020 in Arusha, Tanzania, last June to facilitate the recovery of the Nile perch, the most commercially viable fish.
EAC countries were expected to reach a consensus on issues pertaining to sustainable fishing, including the Nile perch not being harvested until it was 50cm long or weighed 2kg.
According to scientists, the Nile Perch has the capacity to produce a lot of eggs, so populations can be sustained well if they increase in body weight. The heavier the fish, the more eggs it produces.
A 50kg Nile perch produces 7 million eggs at a go, and it is capable of going through the cycle at least thrice a year, reported the East African. Fish processors across the countries have enforced this requirement by rejecting undersize and underweight fish. But undersize fishing continues as the demand for fish, especially in DRC markets, increases fuelling the smuggling of smoked fish across the borders in trucks.
Furthermore, the deployment of the Ugandan military to stop foreigners fishing in Ugandan waters has exacerbated tensions with Kenya due to the dispute between the two countries over Migingo Island which borders Kenya.
Additionally, conflict between the various fishing communities on the lake has spiked as incomes have dropped and the fishermen battle over remaining resources.