Illegal fishing threatens Nile perch exports

Aug 28, 2008

UGANDA will not have any Nile perch to export in the next two years if illegal fishing is not curbed immediately.

By Josephine Maseruka
and Macrines Nyapendi

UGANDA will not have any Nile perch to export in the next two years if illegal fishing is not curbed immediately.

Fisheries state minister Fred Mukisa yesterday said illicit fishing methods have left the Nile perch depleted. He was addressing the press at the Media Centre in Kampala.

Mukisa regretted that Uganda, which has been earning more than $100m from fish exports, will this year get less revenue due to over-fishing of immature fish.

However, statistics from the fisheries department show that Uganda’s fish exports by June this year had fetched $62m from 11,000 tonnes.

In 2005, Uganda’s fish exports fetched $150m. In 2006, they fetched $146m, while in 2007 they fetched $117m.
In a recent study, the Jinja-based Fisheries Research Institute estimated the Nile perch stock in Lake Victoria at 221,175 tonnes, down from 650,000 between 1999 and 2000.

Mukisa explained that whenever Nile perch stock reduces, other fish species like tilapia, nkejje and mukene (silver fish) resurface.

He said there was a dramatic increase in tilapia and Nile perch stocks in areas where tough measures have been effected against illegal fishing.

“If the fishing standards are practised on all our lakes, within six to nine months, our Nile perch and tilapia stocks would have multiplied to satisfactory levels,” Mukisa said. The two fish species dominate Uganda’s exports.

The ministry is contemplating closing 18 fish landing sites if they do not adhere to the standards within the next two weeks.

Masaka and Bugiri districts top the list, each with six notorious Beach Management Units. The landing sites in Masaka are Lambu, Kaziru, Namirembe, Karokoso, Ddimu and Kachanga, which Mukisa said had been notorious for illicit fishing for a long time.

In Bugiri, there is Waka Waka, Migingo, Wayasi, Hama, Lolwe and Sigulu islands.
Mayuge has Musoli, Nkobe and Kasali, while Busia district has Majanji landing site.

In Wakiso, fishing communities at Nsazi Island and Kigungu Landing Site are also engaged in illicit fishing.

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