DESPITE numerous efforts by the government, illegal fishing in our lakes and Indian Ocean coast waters has continued to be rampant and even intensified to the extent of threatening the existence of our fishery resources.
Every other day there are reports about the use of banned fishing methods such as dynamite fishing, poisoning, and use of nets with small holes and other prohibited gears.
Besides, the number of fishing vessels and fishermen, in many if not all water bodies, is increasing by day exerting more pressure on our already over-exploited fishery resources.
These problems are compounded by the fact that there is still no effective mechanism of checking new entrants into fishing business and as a result licensing of more fishing vessels and fishermen than the stocks available has been commonplace.
The Director of Fisheries, Dr. Geofrey Nanyaro, recently admitted that depletion of prawns (along the Tanzania’s coast of the Indian Ocean) was associated with too many fishing companies as compared to available stocks.
Every other day there are reports about the use of banned fishing methods such as dynamite fishing, poisoning, and use of nets with small holes and other prohibited gears.
Besides, the number of fishing vessels and fishermen, in many if not all water bodies, is increasing by day exerting more pressure on our already over-exploited fishery resources.
These problems are compounded by the fact that there is still no effective mechanism of checking new entrants into fishing business and as a result licensing of more fishing vessels and fishermen than the stocks available has been commonplace.
The Director of Fisheries, Dr. Geofrey Nanyaro, recently admitted that depletion of prawns (along the Tanzania’s coast of the Indian Ocean) was associated with too many fishing companies as compared to available stocks.
“The number of fishing permits issued didn’t correspond with the amount of stocks available in the ocean hence depletion,” he said.
He cited other reasons as unrealistic stock statistics, environmental destruction due to the application of crude methods such as the using of heavy chains and inappropriate nets all of which pose a threat to sustainable utilization of the fishery resources.
Consequently, Dr. Nanyaro said, the government recently had to suspend commercial trawling for prawns until next year to allow multiplication because harvesting level per season dropped from 1, 500 to only 300 tons.
Commercial trawling for prawns (white, giant, tiger, brown and flower) in Tanzania is carried-out in the Coast region mainly in Bagamoyo, Rufiji and Kisiju.
Some trawlers were reportedly using heavy chains so that they sank deeper in the mud where prawns are found.
“When the chains vibrate, both small and big size prawns jump into the net. Such methods destroy breeding grounds,” the Director of Fisheries noted.
According to him, stock assessment survey on prawns will start soon to determine the state of recovery before March next year which is the beginning of the next fishing season.
However, sources from the fishing industry are skeptical over this saying that the recovery period of stocks could take up to ten years because trawlers have over-harvested the fish stocks and destroyed breeding and feeding areas.
Similar cases have also been reported in Lake Victoria which is the second largest fresh water lake in the world and which earns Tanzania billion of shillings every year in terms of export of fish fillets.
Sometime in May this year, President Jakaya Kikwete while in Mwanza expressed his concerns over the increasing acts of over fishing and illegal fishing in Lake Victoria which, according to him, posed a threat to the future of the lake’s fishery resources.
“Over fishing is posing a great threat. Reports show that the number of fishermen has gone up from 51, 935 in 2002 to 98,015 last year,” he revealed.
Fishing vessels operating in the lake have also increased from 15,434 to 29,730 during the period, he added.
He said this shortly after officially inaugurating a new fish-processing plant that is owned by Tanzania Fisheries Development Company Limited (TFDC) a subsidiary of the National Investment Company Limited (NICOL).
“I really wish these findings were wrong. But this is the reality,” said the President, expressing his deepest concern over the future of the lake and its fisheries.
President Kikwete further said that the size of fish being caught was also worrisome, pointing out that of late Nile Perch species coming out of the lake weighs between 2 and five 5 kilogrammes as compared to 15 and 45 kilogrammes some years back. The president said some unscrupulous fishermen still use illegal fishing gear and practices such as poisoning, outlawed nets and dynamites.
“Worse still recent research findings have it that Nile perch catches were down to 375,400 last year from 750,000 tons in 2004,” he said adding:
“This is indeed disappointing.”
He thus directed the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development, John Pombe Magufuli, to see to it that strategies for reversing the trend were drawn up and implemented promptly.
I don’t doubt Magufuli’s ability to deal with such problems. It’s only a few months since he was appointed to head the ministry but some success has already started being realized in many parts of the country.
So far Tanzania has made a swift move to restore order in fishing industry which includes the impounding of illegal fishing gears, unseaworthy boats, revocation of fishing licenses and stopping the fishing of endangered fish species.
Consequently, Dr. Nanyaro said, the government recently had to suspend commercial trawling for prawns until next year to allow multiplication because harvesting level per season dropped from 1, 500 to only 300 tons.
Commercial trawling for prawns (white, giant, tiger, brown and flower) in Tanzania is carried-out in the Coast region mainly in Bagamoyo, Rufiji and Kisiju.
Some trawlers were reportedly using heavy chains so that they sank deeper in the mud where prawns are found.
“When the chains vibrate, both small and big size prawns jump into the net. Such methods destroy breeding grounds,” the Director of Fisheries noted.
According to him, stock assessment survey on prawns will start soon to determine the state of recovery before March next year which is the beginning of the next fishing season.
However, sources from the fishing industry are skeptical over this saying that the recovery period of stocks could take up to ten years because trawlers have over-harvested the fish stocks and destroyed breeding and feeding areas.
Similar cases have also been reported in Lake Victoria which is the second largest fresh water lake in the world and which earns Tanzania billion of shillings every year in terms of export of fish fillets.
Sometime in May this year, President Jakaya Kikwete while in Mwanza expressed his concerns over the increasing acts of over fishing and illegal fishing in Lake Victoria which, according to him, posed a threat to the future of the lake’s fishery resources.
“Over fishing is posing a great threat. Reports show that the number of fishermen has gone up from 51, 935 in 2002 to 98,015 last year,” he revealed.
Fishing vessels operating in the lake have also increased from 15,434 to 29,730 during the period, he added.
He said this shortly after officially inaugurating a new fish-processing plant that is owned by Tanzania Fisheries Development Company Limited (TFDC) a subsidiary of the National Investment Company Limited (NICOL).
“I really wish these findings were wrong. But this is the reality,” said the President, expressing his deepest concern over the future of the lake and its fisheries.
President Kikwete further said that the size of fish being caught was also worrisome, pointing out that of late Nile Perch species coming out of the lake weighs between 2 and five 5 kilogrammes as compared to 15 and 45 kilogrammes some years back. The president said some unscrupulous fishermen still use illegal fishing gear and practices such as poisoning, outlawed nets and dynamites.
“Worse still recent research findings have it that Nile perch catches were down to 375,400 last year from 750,000 tons in 2004,” he said adding:
“This is indeed disappointing.”
He thus directed the Minister for Livestock and Fisheries Development, John Pombe Magufuli, to see to it that strategies for reversing the trend were drawn up and implemented promptly.
I don’t doubt Magufuli’s ability to deal with such problems. It’s only a few months since he was appointed to head the ministry but some success has already started being realized in many parts of the country.
So far Tanzania has made a swift move to restore order in fishing industry which includes the impounding of illegal fishing gears, unseaworthy boats, revocation of fishing licenses and stopping the fishing of endangered fish species.
The massive police dragnet carried out in recent past saw 133 suspected culprits being netted and apprehended in the lakeside town of Mwanza some of whom have already been sentenced to imprisonment.
There is an on-going exercise of cracking down on foreign fishing vessels that are fishing on Tanzanian waters illegally. The operation also involves our Navy as far as border patrol is concerned.
“Neither the government nor the citizens are benefiting from fishing industry in the country. Its better we leave these fishes in water,” said Magufuli as quoted in the media recently adding:
“We have (even) jailed a CCM ward chairman in Musoma for two years and a person from a neighbouring country for eight years for illegal fishing we are not afraid of anyone,” he added.
“We have (even) jailed a CCM ward chairman in Musoma for two years and a person from a neighbouring country for eight years for illegal fishing we are not afraid of anyone,” he added.
Early this month Magufuli disclosed that the government decided to cancel licenses held by 69 registered foreign fishing vessels operating in the Indian Ocean as part of efforts to control unregulated fishing in Tanzanian waters and increase revenue in the form of license fees.
However, it’s important to note that the problem is quite bigger for the minister or the ministry alone. Our water bodies are too extensive making it hard to control the number of entrants into the fishing industry.
Tanzania isn’t the only country in the world facing such a problem as over fishing is common all across the world.
It’s an undeniable fact that fishing represents the major contribution to the economies of many countries, both directly as food and indirectly in the production of meal and oil for animal feed.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) reveals that the fishery sector contributes more than five percent to GDP in Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Seychelles.
“Fish is also a major source of protein for many poor people. From 1973 to 1990, fisheries supplied some 20 percent of the animal protein intake of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa,” UNEP says in its 2002 State of the Environment and Policy Retrospective report.
According to UNEP, though statistics show the world’s aggregate catch of fish has grown over time, this growth has come to an end mainly due to over-fishing whereby fish are caught faster than they can reproduce.
“In many areas, the world’s oceans have reached their maximum level of production and production may not be sustainable under the present circumstances,” UNEP notes.
UNEP attributes open access to fishing in most fisheries as one of the major causes of depletion of the fishery resources whereby the number of fishermen has more than doubled worldwide.
“In most developing countries, the poor have no choice but to glean the last of the resource,” UNEP explains in the report.
The UN environmental agency says that free and open access encourages over fishing with fishermen tending to catch as much fish as they can without taking care to maintain the fish stock.
It’s worth noting that the essential feature of a renewable resource such as fish (capable of regenerating after harvesting), is that its stock is not fixed and can be increased as decreased depending on the nature of utilization.
In their book ‘Economics of Natural Resources and The Environment’ writers David Pearce and Kerry Turner cautions that there is always a potential of making a renewable resource disappear if utilization is not controlled.
“The potential of over-harvesting a renewable resource is significant: It is quite easy to make a renewable resource disappear. This will obviously happen if the rate of harvest exceeds the rate of natural growth of the resource persistently,” they say.
The writers attribute over-fishing to open access (a situation in which no one owns the resource and access is open to all) but add that other factors such as low operation costs (including taxes by governments) also attract new entrants into the fishing industry.
It’s obvious that there is no any water body that could be said to be without owner. All lakes, oceans and rivers are under territorial borders of countries.
However, poor regulation such as unregulated or easy issuing of licenses (as we have seen in the Tanzanian case earlier on), expansiveness of water bodies and many more such factors render the fishery resources almost open to everyone.
And as an English saying goes-everybody’s property is nobody’s, the common practice has been over-exploitation and abuse of the resources thereby posing a threat of extinction of the fisheries.
Regulation in forms of licenses, taxes and other restrictions are meant to enable countries to avoid such a situation in time before the situation gets out of hand and it’s high time that countries sharing transboundary water resources joined hands to address the problem.
Unrestricted exploitation of resources by everyone with no or poor regulation is more likely to lead to resources’ extinction hence damage the welfare of everyone and imposing an irreversible cost on future generations.
However, it’s important to note that the problem is quite bigger for the minister or the ministry alone. Our water bodies are too extensive making it hard to control the number of entrants into the fishing industry.
Tanzania isn’t the only country in the world facing such a problem as over fishing is common all across the world.
It’s an undeniable fact that fishing represents the major contribution to the economies of many countries, both directly as food and indirectly in the production of meal and oil for animal feed.
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) reveals that the fishery sector contributes more than five percent to GDP in Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal and Seychelles.
“Fish is also a major source of protein for many poor people. From 1973 to 1990, fisheries supplied some 20 percent of the animal protein intake of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa,” UNEP says in its 2002 State of the Environment and Policy Retrospective report.
According to UNEP, though statistics show the world’s aggregate catch of fish has grown over time, this growth has come to an end mainly due to over-fishing whereby fish are caught faster than they can reproduce.
“In many areas, the world’s oceans have reached their maximum level of production and production may not be sustainable under the present circumstances,” UNEP notes.
UNEP attributes open access to fishing in most fisheries as one of the major causes of depletion of the fishery resources whereby the number of fishermen has more than doubled worldwide.
“In most developing countries, the poor have no choice but to glean the last of the resource,” UNEP explains in the report.
The UN environmental agency says that free and open access encourages over fishing with fishermen tending to catch as much fish as they can without taking care to maintain the fish stock.
It’s worth noting that the essential feature of a renewable resource such as fish (capable of regenerating after harvesting), is that its stock is not fixed and can be increased as decreased depending on the nature of utilization.
In their book ‘Economics of Natural Resources and The Environment’ writers David Pearce and Kerry Turner cautions that there is always a potential of making a renewable resource disappear if utilization is not controlled.
“The potential of over-harvesting a renewable resource is significant: It is quite easy to make a renewable resource disappear. This will obviously happen if the rate of harvest exceeds the rate of natural growth of the resource persistently,” they say.
The writers attribute over-fishing to open access (a situation in which no one owns the resource and access is open to all) but add that other factors such as low operation costs (including taxes by governments) also attract new entrants into the fishing industry.
It’s obvious that there is no any water body that could be said to be without owner. All lakes, oceans and rivers are under territorial borders of countries.
However, poor regulation such as unregulated or easy issuing of licenses (as we have seen in the Tanzanian case earlier on), expansiveness of water bodies and many more such factors render the fishery resources almost open to everyone.
And as an English saying goes-everybody’s property is nobody’s, the common practice has been over-exploitation and abuse of the resources thereby posing a threat of extinction of the fisheries.
Regulation in forms of licenses, taxes and other restrictions are meant to enable countries to avoid such a situation in time before the situation gets out of hand and it’s high time that countries sharing transboundary water resources joined hands to address the problem.
Unrestricted exploitation of resources by everyone with no or poor regulation is more likely to lead to resources’ extinction hence damage the welfare of everyone and imposing an irreversible cost on future generations.
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