Socio-Economic Impacts of Trawling in Lake Victoria. Item Type Report Section Authors Abila, R. Publisher IUCN Eastern Africa Regional Office Download date 26/09/2021 09:44:50 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/7261 SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TRAWLING IN LAKE VICTORIA RICHARD O. ABILA Research Officer Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute P.O. Box 1881 Kisumu, Kenya Introduction Trawling is a unique technique of harvesting fish on Lake Victoria. It is a modern method requiring relatively high capital investment and is capable of using complex scientific gadgets in monitoring and hauling fish. The fish caught by an average trawler may be many times what a local fishing unit may produce. Therefore, a trawler will yield higher catch per unit of labour and time input in a fishing operation than the traditional fishing boats. There is an official ban in place on commercial trawling in all three East African countries. Despite this, illegal trawling has persisted, presumably with the tacit knowledge of the government officers responsible for enforcing the ban. It appears that the incentives and profits attained in trawling are so high that some trawler owners continue in the business even at the risk of being prosecuted. Alternatively it may be that trawler owners are very powerful and influential people in business or in the civil service. Evidence shows that among the initial owners of trawl boats in Kenya were top government officials, including a Cabinet Minister and an Assistant Director of Fisheries living in the lake region. The profit motives and the powerful forces in the trawler industry effectively ensured that "disused" and non-performing vessels previously owned by the government of Kenya for the delivery of social services, in patrolling the lake and transporting passengers and goods, were purchased by private businessmen and renovated into trawlers. In this way, vessels owned by the Fisheries Department, Kenya Police, Ministry of Health, Customs Department and Kenya Railways were not repaired to continue in Government services, but sold off to rich and powerful individuals to be converted into trawlers. 26 Trawling, being a non-selective fishing method, management plan, Lake Victoria may not be the can destroy the biodiversity and ecology of the ideal environment for commercial trawling. lake. It can interfere with the stability of the A Background to the Trawling Controversy on water columns and remove much of the Lake Victoria (1967-1979) primitive but ecologically useful bottom The controversy surrounding trawling on Lake dwelling micro-organisms. The small meshed Victoria began in the mid-1960s. The then Lake codends can as well harvest immature and Victoria Fisheries Research Project (LVFRP), juvenile fish, and even their eggs. Trawling can implemented jointly by the East African Fresh- therefore be sustainably done only in an water Fisheries Organization (EAFFRO), the environment where there is sufficient United Nations Development Program (UNDP) information concerning fish stocks, their and the Food and Agriculture Organization breeding patterns, the movement of fish and the (FAO), carried out a stock assessment of the delicate ecological balances of the particular fisheries of Lake Victoria in 1967. The study water body. Even then, the long-term success of concluded that there was sufficient quantity of trawl fishery will ultimately depend on the haplochromines, which could make possible an existence of sound management systems to annual harvest of about 100,000 tons without control over-fishing and other potential damages adversely affecting the stock. Other species by trawlers. could allow a further sustainable harvest of Unfortunately, the situation on Lake Victoria about 15,000 - 20,000 tons per year. Further today lacks in both conditions: There is neither more, the study report indicated that the adequate information to decide on useful and Haplochromis species - a small bony fish "with effective interventions nor the management little value" to local consumers - could not be capacity to successfully implement those steps. readily distributed along the existing marketing The changes in fish species, weather, water channels. Thus, it concluded, haplochromines quality and biological factors in the lake, as provided a large untapped supply of fish for well as the effects of the water hyacinth on which there was very little demand (Nyholm some critical parts of the lake, have reduced the and Whiting, 1971). accuracy of the traditional pool of knowledge on Two recommendations were made. First, that a the lake's ecology, fish breeding patterns and fleet of trawlers, each at least 40ft long, should migration. be established to harvest the unused fish stocks. Even if such information was available, trawler In line with this, a fishmeal industry should also operators have no incentives or obligation to be developed to convert the large quantities of avoid fishing in the particularly delicate areas of Haplochromis species to be harvested. The the lake, which often are the richest in fish report observed that there existed large demand stocks. In a competitive production and market for fishmeal both in East Africa and abroad. system where there is little restriction on the The trawler-fishmeal complex could thus reduce exploitation of the primary resource, each fish imports and earn foreign exchange for the competitor will aim at using as much of the region. resource as possible so as to maximize profits. A second phase of LVFRP, which included a Thus, in the absence of strict regulations on sociological study component, was initiated in their operation, each trawler operator will fish 1971. Broadly, the task of the sociologist was to in areas that are likely to have higher densities forecast what effect the trawler-fishmeal of fish populations, irrespective of the damage it industry would have on the fishing communities may cause to the ecosystem of the lake. As was of Lake Victoria. The second phase project pointed out by James Siwo Mbuga earlier in this report concluded that, in many ways, there publication, uncontrolled trawling in the 1970s would be direct competition and conflicts and 1980s may have played a major role in the between trawlers and the local fishermen. disappearance of certain indigenous fish species Rather than trawlers, it recommended that of Lake Victoria, including some of the intermediate fishing technology owned by local haplochromines. With its delicate ecosystem, fishermen be developed for exploiting the lack of sufficient information on important fisheries resources (Jansen, 1977; LVFRP, parameters and the absence of a working 1973). 27 Thus two types of contrasting proposals Other reports indicate that a few trawlers emerged from LVFRP. The first phase operated before 1970 in Port Victoria, Kisumu emphasized the advantages of a capital intensive and Mbita, mainly to harvest tilapines. These trawler-fishmeal industry while the second vessels, renovated from existing boats, were phase argued for the development of an small and isolated and therefore caused intermediate technology, which could co-exist insignificant impact on the fisheries. Including with the traditional fishing systems. Despite these, the history of trawling on Lake Victoria this, all three countries made the choice of has many examples of how national and developing a trawler-fishmeal industry. international business interests converge to override the development goals of the fishery Tanzania was the first country to introduce for the benefit of local fishing communities. modern trawlers on Lake Victoria for commercial purposes. In 1973-74 the state Concern about Trawling after 1980 owned Nyanza Fisheries Corporation of The scenario in 1960s was quite different from Tanzania acquired 4 large and well-equipped the situation after 1980. In the former, trawling trawlers financed under the Dutch Government was proposed by biologists as a way to harvest aid scheme. Soon after, the Ugandan the unused stocks of haplochromines, which Government allowed some private businessmen then constituted 70-80% of the fish biomass of to establish a trawling industry. Almost Lake Victoria. Three decades later, the simultaneously, in 1974 the Kenyan haplochromine populations have drastically Government allowed a privately owned declined, probably due to predation and over company, Aquarius Enterprises, to establish a exploitation, to less than 2% of the catch from trawler-fishmeal industry based on the Lake the lake. Nile perch, hardly seen in Lake Victoria fisheries. Victoria before 1970, now constitutes nearly half of the catch, and is the major target of Aquarius Enterprises was a share company, modern trawlers. Trawling after 1980 has been with majority of the shares owned by a few carried out purely for profit motives, without Kenyan businessmen and Government officials. any biological basis, particularly on the size of In order to acquire the technical skill and existing fish stocks. For this reason the East foreign capital needed to set up the industry, the African governments instituted a complete ban company made contact with industrialized on trawling on Lake Victoria at the beginning of countries. In particular, it sought financial and this decade. Despite the ban, there is concern technical assistance from the Norwegian that trawling has continued. Meanwhile many development agency, NORAD. The company arguments have been put forward for and proposed a joint venture with one or more against trawling, without reaching a consensus Norwegian companies, where the latter would (Jansen 1973; Othina and Osewe-Odera, 1996). supply 10 trawlers, fish processing equipment and technical personnel. The Norwegian The Case for Trawling enterprises, in this regard, would own about Proponents of trawling have pointed out many half the shares of the joint company. The advantages of trawling over the other fishing Fisheries Development Corporation of Norway methods. These positive attributes of a trawl (FIDECO), which was a consortium of 30 fishery are well illustrated by Mbuga in this private Norwegian Companies supported by publication. First, trawlers are able to catch and NORAD, showed interest in the project.