Abstract:

Sound fisheries resources management requires accurate and routine data on dynamics of the exploited stocks such as magnitude, distribution and trends of fishing effort and fish catches. Catch Assessment Surveys (CASs) are among the most popular tools used to assess and monitor exploited stocks to generate information required to guide their management. Since June 2005, the Partner States sharing Lake Victoria have been carrying out regular, regionally harmonized Catch Assessment Surveys (CASs) as one of the key ways of monitoring the fisheries resources of the lake. The June 2021 Catch Assessment Surveys (CASs) were conducted at 143 pre-selected fish landing sites comprising, 32 in Kenya, 64 in Tanzania and 56 in Uganda. These landing sites represent approximately 10% of all landing sites on sharing the lake. The CASs were conducted following regionally harmonised Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and adopted the electronic data collection system (eCAS). The information generated delivers a set of indicators to support decision-making in the context of policy and development planning and management plan evaluation. This report presents the current status and trends of the major fisheries of Lake Victoria for the period June 2005 to June 2021. It provides a baseline against which specific management measures could be undertaken or evaluated.
The monthly catches of dagaa, Nile perch, and Tilapia generally increased in 2021. Dagaa increased to 76405 tonnes in 2021 from 46567.4 tonnes in 2015. The increased was reported in both Kenya and Uganda at 62.2% and 82.7% respectively. Tilapia monthly catches increased by 51.6% to 3460.5 tonnes in 2021. The increment was recorded in all the riparian countries, but highly in Uganda at 53.8%. Also, the Nile perch catches increased by 26.5% in 2021 to 18470 tonnes. Although the catches of Nile perch increased in 2021 from 2015, the decreased catch rates in indicative of the immense ecological stress on its stocks. Emerging Synodontis spp and Caridina fisheries were observed in both Uganda and Tanzania respectively. The Synodontis spp fishery has been licenced in Uganda and thus requires close monitoring to avoid excessive exploitation of the species stocks. Similar to monthly catches, the annual catches in 2021 increased by 69.2% to 1,483,501.2t, dominated by dagaa catches.
Although dagaa had the highest monthly/annual catches around the lake, Nile perch contributed the highest lake-wide beach value. Nile perch contributed 52.98 % of the 1139300 million USD dollars estimated from the annual catches in 2021. Dagaa contributed
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only 23.23% of the annual beach around the lake, which could be attributed to the postharvest loss/poor handling process that reduces the beach value of the landed dagaa catches. These include adding sand into the catch, poor preservation, and drying infrastructures around the landing sites.
Due to the economic importance of the Nile perch fishery, the Partner States should take the necessary measures to counter the emerging trend of increasing exploitation of undersize Nile perch. These should include increased efforts in Monitoring Control and Surveillance MCS). Increase of fishing pressure is likely to be the driving force among factors affecting this fishery. Management measures aimed at streamlining fishing effort to increase production are required. Post handling infrastructure of dagaa fishery should be improved around the lake because it was prevalent in all riparian countries.