SUSTAINABLE USE OF FISHERIES RESOURCES IN EAST AFRICA

After studying this unit, you will be able to:

(a) know the major fishing areas in East Africa, inland and on the sea.

(b) understand the main methods of fishing and draw diagrams to illustrate these methods.

(c) understand the factors that favour fishing in East Africa.

 (d) understand the differences between traditional and modern fishing methods and factors affecting the choice of these methods.

(e) Understand the characteristics, trends, benefits and problems of fishing in a local area.

(f) understand the dangers of over – fishing and how this can be prevented

(g) understand the factors that cause damage of fishing grounds including pollution and how this can be prevented

(h) know some methods of preserving fish

(I) understand the methods of farming fish and how they help in conserving fish stocks.

 (J) understand the marketing of fish.

(k) understand the methods of conserving fishing grounds

(l) use statistics, graphs and charts to analyses trends of fish stocks and fish catches.

(m) appreciate the dangers facing fishing in East Africa, including overfishing, poor methods and pollution, and the need for strict laws and enforcement to preserve fish stocks.

Keywords

• basket net
• freezing
• canning
• line and rod
• drift net
• dynamite
• nets
• fisheries
• overfishing
• fish farming
• fishing ground
• smoking
• sun drying
• traps
• trawling

Introduction

You may have seen, heard of or eaten fish. Likewise, people in other areas of East Africa have seen, heard of or eaten fish. You may or may not know where and how fish is obtained. In this unit, you will learn about sustainable use of fisheries resources, its benefits and problems in East Africa.

5.1 What is fishing?

In your discussions, you found out that there are many kinds or types of fish, for example tilapia, Nile perch, mud fish, silver fish and many others, that people eat or sell or buy in markets. Fish are got or obtained from water bodies such as rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. These water bodies which are habitats of fish are referred to as fishing grounds or fishing areas.

Fish and their habitat are collectively referred to as fisheries resources. The act of obtaining fish from their habitant is called fishing.

5.2 The fishing grounds of East Africa

Figure 5.1: Major fisheries and important fish landing sites in East Africa

Visiting a Fish Landing Site

If you live near a lake or large river, arrange to visit a fishing area. If you go there do Activity 5.3 by observing what you see and asking questions to the people engaged in fishing.

From the visit to a fishing area or research from textbooks, newspapers and other resources, you were able to find out that fish from water is landed at a place called a Fish Landing Site. You were also able to find out that the area was suitable for fishing because of the presence of the water body which has many varieties of fish such as tilapia, Nile perch, silver fish, cat fish, and many others. These types of fish are the most common in Uganda and are sold to local markets and also exported. Many are sold fresh while others are preserved before selling them. You were also able to find out that the common methods used to catch fish are gill netting, hooking, basket traps and lining.

You also found that the fishing communities are facing problems such as overfishing, poor fishing methods, pollution, theft or piracy, lack of capital and poor transport facilities. These problems lead to reduced fish catch. However, some measures like use of proper size net, access to loans and carrying out fish farming can improve the fish catch

5.3 Methods of fishing

These are techniques used to catch fish. Most fishing in Uganda still uses traditional methods.

Figure 5.2: Line and rod

Figure 5.3: Spearing

Figure 5.4: Nets in water

Figure 5.5: Basket fishing

 Figure 5.6: Basket fishing

Line and rod fishing or hooking

Fish like to eat small worms or small insects. Some fish feed on small fish. These are called prey for fish. These worms and small fish can be used as bait in trapping fish. To catch fish, you have a rope or string with a hook on the end attached to a wooden rod to make it easy to throw (see Figure 5.2). The bait is attached to the hook and thrown into the water. As the fish swallows the bait, it gets caught on the hook. The line is then carefully pulled to take the fish out of the water.

Spearing

Spearing (See Figure 5.3) is a traditional method of fishing. If the water is not deep and fish can be seen swimming, one can use a spear to throw at the fish and kill them. The same can be done with a bow and arrow.

Basket traps

A basket is made with a small funnel entrance facing inwards. Some bait is put in the basket. The fish will swim into the basket through the funnel to get the bait, but since the funnel faces inwards, the fish cannot find their way out and so get caught inside. You can then pull the basket out of the water with fish inside it. In shallow water, a small round basket can be attached to a stick and dragged through the water to trap the fish.

Gill netting

Fish nets are made of strings fixed together in a mesh with gaps for the fish to swim through. They are placed in the water with floats on top and as weights to make the other end sink. They float in the water and fish swim towards the net and their fins and gills get trapped in the net. You can then pull the net out of the water with the fish trapped inside, or people can dive down to pull off the fish. In other places the net can be dragged through the water to catch the fish. Sometimes the net is thrown in the water and then dragged out with fish trapped.

5.4 Modern fishing methods

There are modern methods of fishing which are used, especially for fishing at sea (in oceans) although some can be used on water bodies like Lake Victoria / Nalubale. These are shown below.

Figure 5.7: Trawling

Figure 5.8: Purse Seining

Figure 5.9: Drift netting – some drift nets are many kilometers long..

From your observation of the pictures, you have realized that trawling is used for deep sea fishing while purse seining and drift netting are used for sea surface or near surface fishing you have also seen that all methods use specialized vessels, and that these methods are large scale methods capable of catching large amounts of fish. Although these methods are desirable by those who do fishing for commercial purposes, they are a potential danger to the fisheries resources. They catch all fish, whether wanted or unwanted as well as young and old. This is known as indiscriminate fishing. This, with time, leads to exhaustion of the resources.

5.5 Problems of fishing

You have noted some of the problems of fishing at sea. These problems can lead to overfishing. This means that all the fish resources are used up and there is no longer enough for the people to catch or eat. There are also problems with fishing on the lakes, especially Lake Victoria.

From Activity 5.6, you have realized that the problems facing fishing are caused by fishing communities themselves, as well as the non – fishing communities.

These problems include overfishing, catching young fish, and pollution of the fishing areas. These problems lead to depletion or exhaustion of the fish resources, leading to poor fish catch, low protein supply and low incomes to the fishing communities.

These problems can be solved by advising the fishing communities to use proper fishing methods and tools, Government can also help by monitoring the fishing using marine patrol police. Activity 5.7.

From the above activity you found out that the commonest fish preservation methods are sun drying, smoking, icing, deep frying and salting. Sun drying is the most used followed by smoking and then the others follow. Silver fish (Mukene or Dagaa) is the most commonly sun-dried fish in East Africa because of its small size. Much bigger fish are preserved mainly by use of smoking and icing.

Figure 5.10 : Smoking fish

Figure 5.11 : Sun drying fish on the shores of Lake Turkana

Figure 5.12: Canning fish

Figure 5.13: Icing fish

Figure 5.14: Freezing / Refrigerating Fish

Smoking

 First, the fish are prepared by having the scales and intestines removed and then put in a smoking chamber above the fire (See Figure 5.10). If well smoked, the fish will last a long time and have a good flavour.

Sun drying

Fish can last a little longer if they are salted and then dried in the sun as seen in Figure 5.11.

Freezing

If there is electricity to run a refrigerator, the fish can be cut into strips, wrapped in aluminium foil and frozen. They will last long, but only if they are kept frozen, so this needs transport in refrigerators as well.

Canning

This needs a factory where the fish can be put into tins (See Figure 5.12). First, they must be cleaned and cut, removing the head, tails and fins and any blood. Then strips are put into cans or jars with salt water or other liquid to preserve them and then sealed. They can then easily be transported and will last a long time.

Icing

This is the use of ice to keep fish fresh for a long time (See Figure 5.13). Caught fish are placed in a container full of crashed ice.

5.7 Factors favoring fishing in East Africa

Fishing has developed in the countries of East Africa because of a number of factors. Some of these factors are shown in the photograph in Figure 5.15. Study the photograph and attempt activity 5.9.

Figure 5.15: Factors favouring fishing

5.8 Benefits of Fishing

From your visit to a fishing area or from your research about fishing, you realized that fishing is important to people and the government. Use the knowledge you acquired to do the Activity 5.10 below.

5.9 Fish farming

Another way to increase the amount of fish available to people is to build ponds of water and grow the fish in there. This is called fish farming or aquaculture. Fish farming can also be done by placing cages built of wire in a lake and keeping the fish in the cages. This is called cage fishing. The types of fish usually farmed are tilapia and cat fish.

Figure 5.16: A pond dug from the ground on a fish farm.

Figure 5.17 Cage fishing on Lake Victoria

In the above Activity 5.11, you learnt that people in different parts of East Africa do fish farming. Many people commonly do fish farming in ponds which they dig themselves. This can be done anywhere as long as there is land. In recent times, fish farming is being done in cages. This can only be done where there in an open water body such as a lake.

You have also realized that people need training to be able to do fish farming. This is because it is a delicate business that needs great care. However, Fish farming can provide income to the farmers and food (proteins) to their families. It can also earn revenue to the government and foreign exchange to the country

Unit Summary

In this unit, you have learnt that:

• in East Africa fishing is done on lakes, rivers and also in the sea.
• fishing on lakes and rivers is known as freshwater fishing and fishing in the sea or ocean is known as marine fishing.
• there are many types of traditional fishing methods including rod and line, nets and basket traps. netting.
• there are modern methods including trawling, and drift netting
• Some methods lead to over – fishing so less fish are caught
• the problems of fishing in East Africa include overfishing, catching young fish and pollution,
• fish can be preserved by freezing, icing and canning smoking, sun drying, deep frying
• fish production can be increased by fish farming done in ponds or in cages.