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As nation, Tanzania is focusing to eliminate illegal fishing but unfortunately there are still dishonest and greedy fishermen who engage in fishing using prohibited fishing gears in Lake great lakes of Tanganyika and Victoria which affects the existence of fishes within the lakes.

According to the government laws and the fishing act of 2009 gill nets are forbidden, and the regulated fishing act of 2020, the allowed gill nets are the ones with mesh size 3 inches and 144 meshes deeper but some fishers use the gill nets with more than 500-600 meshes deeper in the water.

One among the effects of illegal fishing is the decline Nile perch, the local research published by of Lake Victoria Fishing organization (LVFO), shows that, between 1999 and 2001 the mean stock of Nile perch was 1.29 million tons annually in five years time the figure has gone down to 0.82 million tones.

Different means have been established to regulate the situation, but in some Islands of Lake Vitoria some fishermen still use illegal gears.

In Kagera region, Muleba district, the District commissioner Toba Nguvila said, the government has formulated taskforces in order to regulate the Illegal fishing in the Islands located in Muleba across Lake Victoria.

Same wise to Lake Tanganyika, where the use of gill nets “Makila” are still commonly used by some fishermen whereas juvenile fish are trapped and the fishes that has no use to human being are also captured, many fish are trapped and found spoiled and, a useless act of protection of nature and living aquatic organism.

Story by Joel Daud

Editor: Adela Madyane

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