Globally, many countries are adopting cage aquaculture, but this is the first time East African countries have brought it to a commercial scale amid trials by governments and research institutions. Farmers place the cages strategically inside the lake, and feed the fish daily. In Kenya, the cages are built of metal bars, wire mesh, and durable nets, with ordinary plastic tanks to keep them afloat on the lake and to act as wave breakers. In cage aquaculture fishes are reared to maturity in an enclosure that exchanges water freely with its surroundings. ![]() ![]() Having overfished Lake Victoria’s free-swimming fish stocks, fishermen are moving away from fishing using canoes to cage fish farming. Experts have high hopes that cage aquaculture will revolutionize the fish industry in East Africa, improve fish stocks on the over-fished lake by reducing hunting pressure on free-swimming fish, and reduce fishy international quarrels over Migingo Island. The goal was to build up a vibrant aquaculture industry, mainly through pond-based fish farming on land.īut of late, the fish farmers have taken the aquaculture business to the lake, where they are now rearing fish in floating cages. It was in 2009, at the height of the tussle over Migingo Island, that the Kenyan government launched its Fish Farming Enterprise Productivity Program to inject commercial thinking into fish farming. Pressures on the lake’s fish include overfishing and the use of illegal fishing gear, invasion by the alien water hyacinth ( Eichhornia crassipes), industrial and municipal pollution, changing climatic conditions, and the introduction of the carnivorous Nile perch ( Lates niloticus), which preys on numerous fish species and has driven many nearly extinct. “The much-reported decline of capture fisheries in Kenyan natural waters is a clear indication that aquaculture needs to mitigate the burden of fish shortages,” Jonathan Munguti, a senior research officer and head of the Aquaculture Division at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), told Mongabay. Photo by LAVICORD Project/Maseno University. But the lake’s fish stocks are declining amid growing demand, and so fishermen, researchers, and government authorities are enthusiastically turning to aquaculture to address the problem, particularly on the Kenyan side. Lake Victoria, the second largest freshwater body in the world, yields more than 800,000 metric tons of fish each year that support the livelihoods of nearly 2 million people. “Migingo is the only place on the lake where we are sure of big and sufficient catches, now that fish is getting scarce and scarce in many other fishing grounds,” Nicholas Omondi, who has been a fisherman on Lake Victoria for 33 years, told Mongabay. ![]() Migingo is surrounded by rich underwater biodiversity and thus attracts a lot of fish, making it one of the last lucrative hunting grounds on the lake for fishermen from the two countries. The two countries are fighting over a resource whose scarcity has national implications: fish. The battle has seen the Ugandan government deploy armed officers to control activities on the island, which is perceived to be on the Kenyan side of the lake. A low slab of rocky land less than the size of a football pitch, Migingo is covered end to end with fishermen’s shacks. However, cage fish farming has caused problems elsewhere in the world, in part due to the use of chemicals and the release of waste products, such as dead fish, uneaten feed, and feces.įor the past ten years Kenya and Uganda have been engaged in a fierce tussle over Migingo Island in Lake Victoria.Now fishermen, researchers, and government officials alike are embracing cage aquaculture as a way to boost profits and fish supplies, as well as give the lake’s free-swimming fish a reprieve.Lake Victoria’s commercial fish stocks have plummeted due to overfishing, invasive species, pollution, and changing climatic conditions, among other factors.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |