I would have hanged them all

It's just a matter of days now. World Environment Day is on June 5 and Vision Group media platforms in a campaign, Save Lake Victoria, continue to run articles and programmes highlighting the irresponsible human behaviour threatening the world’s largest fresh water lake. Today, here is the story of how illegal fishing is conducted at Dolwe Island.

By Matthias Mugisha

Ismail Wakisa, 34, loves baggy jeans and baseball caps. And in equal terms, he hates Beach Management Units (BMUs) and people involved in the capture, selling and buying of immature fish. If wishes were horses, he would put all behind bars or hang them.

It is rare to find a fisherman like Wakisa.

“The BMU officials are elected when they have interest in the voters, who engage in illegal fishing. It is not a surprise that illegal fishing activities continue unabated. The Government should arrest people buying and selling young fish,” he says, as he supervises hundreds of workers arranging fishing nets for yet another overnight fishing expedition on the lake.

“Due to the actions of the people mentioned above, the boats might come back empty. I will not be amused,’’ he adds.

Dolwe assistant inspector of Police Sulaiman Semusambwa says theft is common in the area, but the Police are constrained by lack of facilitation to monitor the lake.

The loss of fishing equipment normally leads to another hazard in form of loan sharks. The island has loan sharks who can part with as much as sh800m. However, none of the above is a threat to Wakisa. His greatest fear is the trade in immature fish. He is aware of it and is not ready to quit the trade.

“The problem is not with fishermen, who catch immature fish, but the people entrusted to stump out bad fishing practices. If the Government wants to enforce discipline on the lake, it should employ well paid people, who cannot be corrupted,” he explains.

Wakisa suggests that the Government should use fishermen to fight the vice or arrest the dealers of immature fish. “Catching immature fish is a threat to my business. I have every reason to fight it.”

In addition to fishing boats, Wakisa also owns a container boat that transports fish to factories.

During times of scarcity on average, about 10 tonnes of fish leave Golofa to fish factories daily. When there is a lot of fish, the landing site produces up to 25 tonnes.

Taking an average of 17 tonnes with a kilogramme of fish costing sh700 brings sh119m to Golofa daily.

Golofa employs about 20,000 people. Golofa is the busiest of the several fishing towns in Dolwe Island. The fish factories also keep fishermen on their toes. They reduce prices at will. If you have been supplying five tonnes and you double it to 10 tonnes, the factories reduce the price.

The swim bladder

But that is not the only trick. They tell fishermen that some fish has been rejected and give back to them minus the good parts. They also remove the swim bladders.

The most expensive part of mature Nile perch is its swim bladder locally known as emondo or enuni.

The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ that contributes to the ability of a fish to control its buoyancy, and allow it to stay at the current water depth without having to waste energy in swimming.

In Asian cultures, the swim bladders of certain large fishes are considered a food delicacy. In China they are known as fish maw, and are served in soups or stews.

Swim bladders are also used in the food industry as a source of collagen. They can be made into a strong, water-resistant glue or used to make isinglass for the clarification of beer.

According to fishermen only Nile perch and Semutundu fish in Uganda have swim bladders. Swim bladders from Nile perch are of a better quality and cost more.

The Nile perch was introduced into Lake Victoria from Lake Albert in the 1950 and 1960s for sport fishing. The Nile perch (Latesniloticus) is a species of freshwater fish in the Latidae family of the order Perciformes.

A kilogramme of swim bladder from a mature Nile perch costs about sh400,000 on landing sites from middle men. The price is much more outside of Dolwe Island.

Until recently, Dolwe Island was a fisherman’s dream. Located in the deep waters of Lake Victoria, it was considered the Dubai of Uganda, where fishermen made quick money on account of abundance of fish- but not anymore.

Over fishing has depleted fish stocks and turned former fish tycoons into paupers. The gap between the rich and the poor is wide.

The name Dolwe is a corruption of the Luo name Lolwe meaning Lake Victoria. The lake was named after Queen Victoria of the UK, by John Hanning Speke. With a surface area of 68,800 square kilometres (26,600 sq mi), Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest lake by area, and it is the largest tropical lake in the world.

Dolwe Island is the biggest of the several smaller rocky islands in the Ugandan eastern part of the lake. Measuring about 12 sqkm, it has two main congested towns — Singla in the east and Golofa in the west.

Singla comes from a corruption of the word signal. The town used to have light house with a signal that warned ships against rocks. Vandals who were searching for mercury pulled the light house down, but not the fish.

It is only over fishing due to demand from factories that is making the island less attractive.

The fish factories only buy Nile perch measuring 20 inches and above. This has discouraged fishermen in Golofa from catching immature fish though illegal fishing remains rampant in the island. The immature fish is sold on other landing sites.

“Go out in the lake and you will find hundreds of small boats engaged in illegal fishing. All beaches and landing sites have BMUs. Somebody somewhere is benefiting from them. The BMUs are after money.

"They benefit from what they are supposed to get rid of. They are voted into office by crooked fishermen to further their interest,’’ he states before giving his solution to the problem.

We have limited powers. We cannot operate beyond our beaches. Though we burn illegal fishing gear, other landing sites tolerate the vice,’’ laments Malinga Kayizi, the BMU treasurer of Golofa B.

“Everything has failed. It has proved ineffective to go after the fishermen in the lake. The Government should arrest those selling and buying immature fish in markets and there will be no demand for young fish,’’ Wakisa adds.

Who is Wakisa?

In search of a better life, Wakisa came to Dolwe Island in 1997 and worked as DJ in a makeshift hall. Today, Wakisa, operating from Golofa, is not an ordinary fisherman.

Employing 200 people, Wakisa is an investor. He owns 50 motorised fishing boats, worth sh1b. Each boat, costs not less than sh20m including nets.

Every day, he spends a minimum of sh4m on fuel for the boats. As the proprietor of Waki Investment and Transporters, a logistics company based in Bweyogerere, which runs a number of taxis around Kampala, he is a real businessman.

Dolwe Island is notorious for making people millionaires overnight and breaking them when something goes wrong along the fishing chain.

Some of the hazards include gangs of pirates, who attack fishermen on the lake and steal their boats and engines. Wakisa says he lost 13 boat engines last year.

It's your turn

How can you save the lake?

Did you know that donating to a civil society group such as the Wildlife Clubs of Uganda or Go Green Campaign would go a long way in promoting conservation education that would help change the mindset of people and nurture young people into responsible citizens?