The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
Al-Amani Mutarubukwa
12 November 2009
The three countries sharing Lake Victoria - Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda- plan to raise Sh2.34 billion ($1.8 million) by next January to curb illegal Nile perch fishing.
A joint communique says measures towards this target dubbed "Operation Save Nile Perch," are also expected to reverse the drastic decline of the Nile Perch biomass on Lake Victoria.
Addressing reporters in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, the minister for Livestock Development and Fisheries, Mr John Magufuli, said an emergency Council of Ministers meeting agreed that each partner state should contribute $600,000 (Sh792 million) for the exercise.
He said for more than 50 years Tanzania, like other countries which depend on Lake Victoria, has been exploited by people fishing illegally and thereby denying the country a lot of revenue.
"If well maintained, Lake Victoria has a great potential. Last year alone it earned for the country more than Sh224 billion compared to Sh981 million obtained from fishing activities in the Indian Ocean," he said.
He said Nile Perch stocks have decreased from 1,200,000 tonnes in 2000 to only 331,000 tonnes this year, citing illegal fishing as the major cause for the decline.
Mr Magufuli said the joint crackdown would see surveillance on the lake heightened, while the operation seeks to stop fishermen from using gillnets and monofilament nets.
He said his ministry was striving to increase the amount of fish in the lake as it contributes substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
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