24 FOCUS

Small fish with a big potential

African inland fisheries are increasingly reliant on the capture of small fish species that are sundried and traded to reach consumers often at large distances away from where they were produced. Largely unrecorded, the “hidden catches” go a long way in alleviating “hidden hunger”: as they are consumed whole, small fish are an important source of micro- nutrients for many Africans. Only that, unfortunately, politicians haven’t yet realised this.

By Paul van Zwieten

apture fisheries are an important eco- For many women, selling small fish Cnomic subsistence activity all over Africa, is an important source of income. supporting 200 million Africans directly or in- Photo: Anne Regtien directly through food and income. While con- spicuously absent in global debates about food security, small indigenous fish species have al- ways played an important but unrecorded role in African food systems. Along the shores of rivers, swamps, lakes and ponds, fishers, most- ly women, can be seen fishing with baskets or small lift nets lined with mosquito-netting, catching a host of small fish species “for the pot”. Of the 3,500 African freshwater fish species, 60 to 70 per cent do not grow larger than 15 cm, but most have small populations. Around four decades ago, many African lake fisheries saw a shift from targeting larger cat- fishes, carp, and tilapia to include large catches of open water species such as small freshwa- ter herrings, carps and characins that do attain large population sizes. In dried form, these fish find their way to the markets of any African city. Kapenta caught in Lake Kariba, , provide 25 grams of dried fish once a week to the beaches and lake shores or on nets. Rainy is traded in Johannesburg, Dagaa from Lake all 144 million inhabitants of Kenya, Uganda seasons, overheating and mixing with sand and Victoria is found in Juba, South Sudan, and and Tanzania. Yet, fishing pressure is still low, soil cause high quality losses. Fish is re-dried the pygmy herring from Lake Volta, of only and the potential sustainable catch of Dagaa is after rainfall, but then becomes unfit for hu- 3 cm maximum length, is hawked in small estimated to be around 2 million tonnes. In a man consumption and enters the animal feed plastic bags as “one-man-thousand” on the survey of eight large African lakes with more value chain. For example, 60–70 per cent of streets of Tamale in northern Ghana. Sold in detailed information on ecosystem properties the Dagaa caught in is used as small quantities and eaten whole, small fish are and fisheries, the total potential yield of small animal feed. Simple raised racks or more so- accessible to many households and are thus an fish was estimated at around 5 million tonnes phisticated solar-dryers would greatly increase indispensable source of animal protein and mi- per year, of which only 15 per cent is utilised the quality of dried produce but are rarely used cronutrients in many African societies. today. This unparalleled level of production, in any of the small fish fisheries. Recent work simple capture methods and reduced availabil- in Kenya and Uganda showed that first-stage ity of bigger species due to heavy exploitation processing, mostly carried out by women, on Fisheries and species are the main reasons for the recent consider- average hardly adds value due to the low prices able increase in fishing effort and catch. for low quality fish, thus limiting their capac- The recent boom in small fish fisheries targets ity to invest. In general, women involved in species that all are highly productive and can the small-fish processing sector are constrained sustain very large catches. With high turnover Processing and trade: women’s task by bad working conditions, poor market and rates, annual biological production of small fish transportation infrastructure and limited fi- can reach up to six times their avera