Martin Ssebuyira
23 September 2008
Over 10,000 illegal fishing nets were burnt at Katosi landing site on Friday in an operation to fight illegal fishing on Lake Victoria.
Twenty people were also arrested with immature fish in the operation carried out by the Association of Fishers and Lake Users in conjunction with Nile Fishing.
The Manager Nile Fishing Company, James Kisambira said illegal fishing can be fought by a self-monitoring policy were people act as watchdogs on each other.
He said people should know that killing young fish is destroying their own lives because they risk destroying their income- generating sources.
"We need to charge people found using illegal fishing nets with defilement. They are defiling our lake," Mr Kisambira said during the operation at Katosi landing site .
He cautioned beach management officers against being compromised with bribes, saying it would be betraying their own country.
He said Nile fishing company stopped importing illegal fish nets 10 years back but the people still sneak them in.
Mukono RDC, Umaru Matovu accused people involved in illegal fishing of waging an economic war because they lower the country's foreign earnings.
"I will camp at various landing sites and islands to tussle fishermen using illegal gears," he said. He revealed that several monofilament nets, beach seines, Lama Para nets, gill nets, encircling gill nets and under sized plastic buckets were impounded.
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