Commenting on the declining fish in Lake Victoria, Dick Nyeko, Executive Secretary of Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO), told that the reduction of Nile Perch was due to illegal fishing practices like that of immature fish. It is fact that Uganda has healthy fisheries industry with stocks of Dagaa (mukene). It has increased stocks of haplochromise (Nkejje). It also has a localised stable fishing of tilapia. However, the Nile perch stocks have shown declining trends since 1999 to 2008 where stocks have declined from 1.9 million tonnes to 320,000 tonnes.
The present situation revealed that the Nile Perch fishery needs urgent intervention by the government because the stocks are below sustainable yields as established by scientific reference points. If depleting continues then the people dependant on it could loss their livelihood along the value chain.
There is still need for sensitisation of all stakeholders and government authorities to give fisheries priority in their poverty reduction strategy document and increase on the budgets to ensure that market issues, governance and vulnerability issues are addressed at once. Nyeko said that LVFO has a recovery plan for Nile Perch. This plan if accepted by decision makers could consist of four aspects namely; a proposal to reduce illegalities by half within the next five years incrementally, the need to close certain areas to fishing as protected areas.
It is informed that LVFO signed a memorandum of understanding with GLFC because the commission has been in the business of coordinating, multi-state jurisdiction and specie fisheries for over 100 years. It is necessary to have good investments in managing fisheries that is a source of nutrition and also a foreign exchange earner to support growth in the respective economies and provide food for our people.
