A Fisheries Protection Unit soldier burns illegal gear at Ddimo Landing Site on October 23, 2023. Nearly eight out of every 10 fishermen and vessels are operating illegally on Uganda waters despite the government deploying soldiers to enforce compliance. Photo/Antonio Kalyango
Nearly eight out of every 10 fishermen and vessels are operating illegally on Uganda waters despite the government deploying soldiers to enforce compliance.
A 2023 value-for-money audit report on the Directorate of Fisheries Resources shows 76 percent of the fishing vessels and fishermen on Uganda’s water bodies are unlicensed.
Auditor General John Muwanga singled out Lake Victoria where he said illegal fishing gear on the lake stood at 25 percent despite the current enforcement efforts to rid the lake of illegal gear, which he blamed for the decline in fish population in Uganda.
Unsurprisingly, Ms Hellen Adoa, the State Minister for Fisheries, admitted that the government still wrestles with most fishermen who can’t afford the recommended fishing gear and vessels.
But she said her ministry has drafted several measures to help restore sanity on the country’s waters.
“When we get funds, we shall be able to help the fishermen because most of them can’t afford to get a licence and have the recommended boats and nets,” Ms Adoa said.
“As a government, we are going to support the fishermen and put them in groups, with each group required to have its head as the government looks for the resources to support them,” she added.
Maj Gen (rtd) David Kasura Kyomukama, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries permanent secretary, said the limitation of licensing fishermen was done to avoid overfishing.He said Uganda’s population is increasing yet the water bodies are not, and when the fishermen are not licensed, the fish will be over-caught, risking the country running out of fish in the near future.
“The reason why we license people to fish on the lake is because we want sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resource. If you exploit this unsustainably, you will reduce the amount of fish that comes and end up without any fish,” Gen Kyomukama said.
He said the 76 percent unlicensed fishers cited in the Auditor General’s report are illegal and the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) will deal with them.
“That is why we have FPU. If you don’t have a licence you are not supposed to fish in the lake. There is no failure in licensing. It is because we license people according to the number of fish we have in the lake,” he said.
He said licensing helps so that the fishermen don’t remove all the young, male, female, and baby fish to ensure sustainability.
“If you license too many people, they will fish the mothers, daughters, children, and fathers and you will kill the lake,” Gen Kyomukama said.
The Permanent Secretary warned the fishermen without license to stop operating on the water bodies or they will be dealt with.
He said they are working towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 which requires United Nations (UN) member states to have effectively regulated harvesting, ending over-fishing and unregulated fishing by 2030.
Gen Kyomukama said the ministry is regulating fishing to increase the amount of fish in the lakes.
He said they are encouraging people to practice fish farming and use modern ways of fishing by using better gear.
“Right now, people are hunters. They go on the lake and start looking everywhere for fish but we want to use modern ways, use satellites to know where the fish are, which are the big fish, to remove the big fish and keep them as small,” Gen Kyomukama said.
Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye, the Defence Public Information Officer, said despite a few challenges, the FPU has registered success in combating illegal fishing.
Indeed, the audit report says the Ugandan side of Lake Victoria has registered a significant decrease in the utilisation of illegal fishing gear between 2016 and 2020 with reductions ranging from 21.2 percent to 72.6 percent.
“Despite some gains such as impounding of some illegal fishing gear, concerns remain about recurrence of the aforementioned crime, the fact that less than half of Lake Victoria’s fishermen are registered, and other illegal practices, which point to weaknesses in regulation,” reads part of the audit report.
However, Gen Kulayigye said they will continue to press for an end to illegal fishing practices.
“We are operating against all these challenges from politicians and some of the fishermen who would want to continue with the old ways. That itself has delayed the success,” Gen Kulayigye.
“Even among us, we have people who may go against the procedures of the law,” he said.
Gen Kulayigye said they have ensured consistent monitoring and evaluation. “You have seen that recently there was a change in command. That was an effort to deal with any wrongdoing and improve upon the next.”
Gen Kulayigye said the FPU continues to do the sensitisation in addition to impounding illegal fishing gear and vessels.
Background
Uganda created the FPU as a unit of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) in 2017 in an effort to boost the viability of the fishing sector following rampant illegal fishing practices.
But the unit has engaged in scuffles with illegal fishermen on water bodies, leaving some fishermen dead from gunshots from the FPU.
On many occasions, the FPU also impounded immature fish, illegal fishing gear and arrested some fishermen.
The audit showed that in the months of October and November 2021, FPU impounded and destroyed 279,900 pieces of illegal fishing gear countrywide.
The audit says a total of only 57,357 tonnes were exported during the period between June 2019 and July 2022. This resulted in a shortfall in the target value of fish exports of $921.8M (Shs3.4 trillion) by $527.8m (Shs1.9 trillion).
A 2023 survey report by scientists at the National Fisheries Resource Research Institute confirms a sharp drop in major fish stocks in Lake Victoria.
In total, sampled fish species from the lake, including silverfish, Nile perch and other species, dropped to 2.23 million metric tonnes in 2022, which is 20 percent lower than what was recorded in 2021.
The current production is only 460,000 metric tonnes of capture fisheries and 100,000 metric tonnes from aquaculture.
There are five major lakes in the country, namely Victoria, Albert, Kyoga, Edward, George and more than 160 minor lakes, rivers; wetlands, water reservoirs, valley dams and ponds whose potential if well harnessed can generate over 1,000,000 metric tonnes of fish per annum.
Hopeful.
When we get funds, we shall be able to help the fishermen because most of them can’t afford to get a licence and have the recommended boats and nets,” Ms Hellen Adoa, the State Minister for Fisheries.
Licensing
The reason why we license people to fish on the lake is because we want sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resource,” Maj Gen (rtd) David Kasura Kyomukama, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries permanent secretary.
