Overfishing is destroying Lake Victoria’s biodiversity. Researchers recommend implementing common regulations between the EAC states. Due to overfishing, the stocks of the most common fish are decreasing significantly.

Economy affected by the illegal exploitation of Lake Victoria

Overfishing is depleting the fish resources of Lake Victoria. The three countries surrounding this vast freshwater body Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania are reporting a steady decline in production. On the Ugandan side, the fisheries around the lake are accelerating at an alarming rate. « More than ten factories around the lake have closed, and the remaining 25 are operating below capacity », reported Jinja, an intergovernmental organization based in Uganda.

In Tanzania, the Department of Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) has conducted several studies on the issue, and the results are rather bleak. « The depletion of fish stocks in Lake Victoria is part of a similar problem worldwide, with the exhaustion of fish stocks. When fishing access is unrestricted, too many boats and too many fishermen use too many nets, which eventually depletes the stocks », said the report by Dr. Razack Lokina, coordinator of Environment for Development, a research initiative supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) at UDSM.

According to the report, while there were about 10,000 fishing boats in the 1980s, today, more than 60,000 are operating on Lake Victoria.

Establishing common fishing regulations

The most urgent measure is for Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda the three countries sharing Lake Victoria’s fish stocks to agree on common regulations. The lack of shared regulations undermines efforts to stop overfishing and replenish fish stocks.

For instance, while Tanzania has introduced a minimum mesh size for Nile perch fishing the most common fish species in the lake Kenya has not adopted this measure. As a result, while larger-sized nets in Tanzania prevent the capture of smaller fish, Kenyan fishermen continue to catch them, defeating the intended goal.

If this regulation (on mesh size) could be unanimously adopted, smaller fish would not be caught, and more importantly, female fish would live long enough to reproduce. The practice of factories refusing to pay for fish smaller than the minimum size is also significant, as it has had a major impact in preventing Tanzanian fishermen from using too-small nets. Unfortunately, this practice has not been applied in Kenya, leading Tanzanian fishermen to catch and sell under-sized fish to Kenyan factories.

Overfishing : Fisheries offer solutions

Researchers have also proposed another way to reverse the trend: regulate the fisheries instead of the fishermen. They suggest that by controlling the size of fish bought by the fisheries, East Africa could regulate the capture of smaller specimens.

Fishing access cannot be open to everyone. A recent study published in the international journal Science examined fisheries worldwide and found that fisheries managed under rights-based systems are at a much lower risk of stock depletion. In simple terms, successful fishery management involves clearly defining who has the fish right and who does not. This means reducing the number of fishermen and fishing boats in Lake Victoria.

Beach management units around Lake Victoria

Researchers suggest another approach, modeled after Tanzania introduces Beach Management Units (BMUs) around Lake Victoria. These units require all fishermen using the same beach to be registered and regulated through membership in the unit.

« BMUs seem to have succeeded in eliminating harmful fishing practices, but we have not been able to identify a clear effect of BMUs on reducing the use of nets with excessively small mesh sizes », reported the professor.

He suggests that a necessary step would be to limit BMU membership. « When some fishermen leave for other jobs or retire, they should not be replaced by new ones », advises Dr. Lokina.

According to the researcher, unrestricted fishing access results in an increasing number of fishermen and boats, making regulation more difficult. Even when regulated, more people are fishing, which leads to resource depletion. Mark Weston, author of The Saviour Fish: Life and Death on Africa’s Greatest Lake, shares the researchers’ concerns. According to him, overfishing is a severe blow to the lake’s fishing industry.

Impact of illegal fishing on local populations

At the height of the boom, 2,000 new fishing boats were launched on the lake each year, using increasingly efficient technologies. Despite measures taken by the governments of the surrounding countries such as banning trawlers and cracking down on other illegal fishing methods Nile perch stocks have declined by at least three-quarters.

The average weight of a Nile perch caught in Lake Victoria has dropped from 50 kg in the 1980s to less than 10 kg today. Although fish processing factories have persuaded the Tanzanian government to lower the legal minimum size at which a perch can be caught, many specimens on the market are even smaller than the new threshold.

According to the author, declining fish stocks lead to a decrease in living standards, an increase in social unrest, including crime, and an overall decline in economic development. Of the 25 million people who depend on the lake’s bounty, the majority are struggling to make ends meet. Unemployment and underemployment are widespread, and many are leaving the lake region, while factories are also shutting down. The price of Nile tilapia, another popular fish, has quintupled in five years despite increased competition from Asian fish farms.

The fate of Lake Victoria, the world’s largest freshwater lake, remains uncertain. Researchers believe that policymakers from the three countries must agree on common regulations to preserve the fish species and the overall biodiversity of the lake.