BMU perpetuating illegal fishing

trueUntil World Environment Day, June 5, in a campaign, Save Lake Victoria, Vision Group media platforms is running investigative articles, programmes and commentaries highlighting the irresponsible human activities threatening the world’s largest fresh water lake.

By Francis Kagolo

At about 4:45pm on a cool Thursday evening, Mzee Charles rode a Ponyoka boat and cast his Kokota net into the waters of Lake Victoria in full view of the Beach Management Unit (BMU) officials at Ddewe landing site.

Ponyoka is a small boat commonly used for illegal fishing close to the shores due to its inability to sail deeper into the lake. Kokota (beach seine net) is a micro fi lament net used for indiscriminate fishing.

It is more-or-less the size of a mosquito net that traps fish including the youngest ones. Ironically, these are the nets that thousands of unscrupulous fishermen on Lake Victoria and other shores in the country are using.

At Ddewe, for instance, almost half of the 70 fishermen use Ponyoka, and the impact is severe; for fish stocks have dwindled.

Why the illegal nets

A fisherman said they preferred the illegal nets because its catch is usually higher. In two hours, one can catch fish worth about sh50,000.

Yet, with the legal ones, one has to cast the nets and leave them in the lake overnight. No wonder fish mongers frequent Ddewe landing site all through the day. When New Vision visited the area on Thursday last week, hundreds of immature tilapia were on display.

Joshua Mukulu, a fish monger from the nearby Kajjansi town bought 35 of them at sh8,000 only. Illegal fishing has been a persistent problem on Lake Victoria for decades. true

It heightened in the late 1990s and early 2000s where by, a single landing site like Bugonga in Entebbe reportedly had more than 40 Kokota nets plus dozens of other Kamba-magi and Bugulu, also illegal nets.

Setting up of numerous fish processing factories on various landing sites and in Kampala worsened the situation, compelling the money-hungry fishermen to resort to fish poisoning in order to boost their daily catch.

However, this was so disastrous that it killed all creatures in the lake and led to a ban on our fish exports.

Although the three countries sharing the lake managed to control fish poisoning, the use of illegal nets remains. The Government, in partnership with the BMUs has been keen on fighting illegal fishing through routine burning of illegal nets and tonnes of immature fish.

A total of 200,000kgs of immature fish worth sh300m and 3,800 units of undersize gill nets worth sh19m were impounded in 2010 alone.

However, not even such efforts have managed to bring illegal fishing to 0%, a target the fisheries department had set to achieve by 2009.

BMUs established

Until the late 1990s, there was almost no participation by fishermen in the planning, management and development of fisheries resources.

The process was managed in each country by regulations developed and enforced by central governments.

Legislation to provide legal status for BMUs was passed in Uganda in 2003, Tanzania in 2005 and Kenya in 2008, upon realising that the then centralized approach was ineffective, says a 2009 report by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation.

The objective was to enable all stakeholders to work together for sustainable fi sheries management and improve livelihoods of fishing communities.

Besides policing fellow fishermen to curb illegal fishing, BMUs are involved in revenue collection on behalf of the governments.

The old adage that: set a thief to catch a thief, is built on the notion that since thieves know the tricks of the game, it is best fitted to catch others engaged in it.

Probably officials had this at the back of their mind prior to setting up the BMUs. Although 1,069 BMUs had been formed by 2009, even the co-management (BMUs) system is yet to bear fruits.

Under-sized fish are often caught and exported to neighbouring countries or sold locally, thus damaging the fish stocks and threatening a sector which earns Uganda over $150m (about sh372b) foreign exchange annually.

 What went wrong?

Experts attribute the problem to the ‘poor’ guidelines given to BMUs. Wakiso district fisheries officer, Michael Lubuulwa argues that the idea of setting up BMUs was good but the procedure is inappropriate.

“Using the popular vote to get BMU leaders was wrong because we ended up institutionalizing illegal fishing instead. Illegal fishermen can only vote for someone who can protect them,” he stated.

Indeed, most BMU leaders fear to fight illegal fishing because they believe, with elections around the corner, they may lose votes.

Besides, anyone who makes an attempt to stop it risks his life, for they lack security.

At Ddewe, for instance, Mzee Charles cast his kokota net in the presence of the BMU officials. Asked why they did not arrest Charles for illegal fishing, one of them said: “He (Charles) is the man who took care of us when we were young. He even taught us fishing. How can I arrest him?”

He expounded that it was difficult for BMU members to enforce laws in areas where they grew up, live and work.

“Some of them (illegal fishermen) are our relatives. Others are village elders. How can you arrest them?” he asked.

His colleague put it better. “Even the young fish must go. God created everything to die. If babies can die, why not the young fish?” asked Katende, cheekily.

Another challenge affecting BMU operations is that the chairmen are fishermen and owners of boats.

The vice-chairman of Kasensero BMU, Alozious Nsamba, owns five boats, while Ddewe BMU chairman Munyagwa has two, which he bought at sh700,000. Munyagwa hires out the boats to fishermen daily at a 30% interest rate.

“How can someone arrest his workers over illegal fishing yet he expects income out of them?” Lubuulwa asks.

Abubakar Munyagwa concurred that although they conduct operations sometimes, their work was hindered by conflicts of interests.

He says it is not easy policing in an area where one is born and lives yet his security is not guaranteed.

“We come through elections. What if it is your former agent in the elections using ponyoka! How can you arrest that person?” he asked.

Cost of illegal fishing

Former agriculture minister Hope Mwesigye told New Vision in 2011 that illegal trading in immature fish caused a $60m (about sh120b) loss in returns in 2008, up from ($34m) 2000, respectively.

And, as 2010 closed, over $180m was lost to illegal immature fish trade. Uganda exported 15,417 tonnes of processed fish in 2010, earning $82m, a reduction from the 18,000 tonnes exported in 2009.

The future is still grim after Nile Perch stocks, the most commercially viable species, reduced by about 19% from 84,969 tonnes in 2010 to 69,132 tonnes in 2011, the lowest level ever recorded, according to the Agriculture Sector Performance Report 2012.

What should be done?

Munyagwa says the only remedy is in providing BMU officials with security and changing the entire system.

He says there is need to transfer BMU chairmen from their original landing sites where they are elected to new areas where they can operate freely without conflict of interests.

“Our problem in Uganda is that people only learn after getting problems. If we do not improve BMUs, time will come when fishermen will go to the lake and catch nothing at all,” Lubuulwa warned.

“The economy will almost collapse because besides the direct revenue from fishing, there are many other businesses that thrive on fisheries.”