Overfishing causing scarcity, high fish prices
Apr 29, 2008
<b>Craddock Williams</b><br><br>Fish prices have risen in many places beyond the current rate of inflation in Uganda, -9.7%. This is a reflection more of the stock depletion rates in Lake Victoria than the higher costs we are meeting for fishing fleet and road transport operations.
Craddock Williams
Fish prices have risen in many places beyond the current rate of inflation in Uganda, -9.7%. This is a reflection more of the stock depletion rates in Lake Victoria than the higher costs we are meeting for fishing fleet and road transport operations.
Fish population reductions are hard to measure -as with all wildlife dispersed over a large area. Part of it is attributed by the Department of Fisheries to the run-off pollution from lakeside agriculture, but most is the direct result of persistent over-fishing, and the illegal fishing of immature species.
The number of registered fishing boats on Lake Victoria has increased by 16% since December 2005. The boats are travelling further to catch fish, and the number of processing plants filleting, cleaning, freezing, and packing fish -mainly Tilapia and Nile perch, has risen by 3 to a total of 16. Their average total throughput has increased from 160 tonnes a day to an estimated 180 tonnes this year. And fish exports have increased from 39,000 tonnes in 2005, to an estimated 45,000 tonnes this year. The unit price for exports has risen even more, from $3.64 a kg in 2005 to $4.26. This is a fine record and handsome profit for Uganda’s fish packing industry. But is it sustainable? Is Lake Victoria to follow the dismal record of the North Sea and Atlantic waters where some species have been over-fished close to extinction?
According to Shah Rais Khan at the Uganda Fishnet Manufacturers, “the most serious factor contributing to Uganda’s over-fishing is the use of illegal small mesh netsâ€.
The Statute No 61 of 2002 sought to limit the mesh size to not less than 4 inches. This was designed to reduce the volume of small fish species and immature fish caught in small mesh nets. It has, according to reports from Shah and from fishermen who comply with the law, “only worked a bitâ€. The reason is that small mesh nets, some with a mesh of less than two inches, are smuggled into Uganda, mainly from China, evading Customs vigilance. This seems largely beyond control by the law enforcement fisheries inspectors.
The result is not only are undersized fish caught but the natural growth of Uganda’s fish stock is prevented. There is also an immediate damaging impact on the sales of legal nets by Uganda’s two fishnet manufacturers in Kampala and Masaka.
The writer is a development
economist
Fish prices have risen in many places beyond the current rate of inflation in Uganda, -9.7%. This is a reflection more of the stock depletion rates in Lake Victoria than the higher costs we are meeting for fishing fleet and road transport operations.
Fish population reductions are hard to measure -as with all wildlife dispersed over a large area. Part of it is attributed by the Department of Fisheries to the run-off pollution from lakeside agriculture, but most is the direct result of persistent over-fishing, and the illegal fishing of immature species.
The number of registered fishing boats on Lake Victoria has increased by 16% since December 2005. The boats are travelling further to catch fish, and the number of processing plants filleting, cleaning, freezing, and packing fish -mainly Tilapia and Nile perch, has risen by 3 to a total of 16. Their average total throughput has increased from 160 tonnes a day to an estimated 180 tonnes this year. And fish exports have increased from 39,000 tonnes in 2005, to an estimated 45,000 tonnes this year. The unit price for exports has risen even more, from $3.64 a kg in 2005 to $4.26. This is a fine record and handsome profit for Uganda’s fish packing industry. But is it sustainable? Is Lake Victoria to follow the dismal record of the North Sea and Atlantic waters where some species have been over-fished close to extinction?
According to Shah Rais Khan at the Uganda Fishnet Manufacturers, “the most serious factor contributing to Uganda’s over-fishing is the use of illegal small mesh netsâ€.
The Statute No 61 of 2002 sought to limit the mesh size to not less than 4 inches. This was designed to reduce the volume of small fish species and immature fish caught in small mesh nets. It has, according to reports from Shah and from fishermen who comply with the law, “only worked a bitâ€. The reason is that small mesh nets, some with a mesh of less than two inches, are smuggled into Uganda, mainly from China, evading Customs vigilance. This seems largely beyond control by the law enforcement fisheries inspectors.
The result is not only are undersized fish caught but the natural growth of Uganda’s fish stock is prevented. There is also an immediate damaging impact on the sales of legal nets by Uganda’s two fishnet manufacturers in Kampala and Masaka.
The writer is a development
economist