Commercialization of the fisheries of Lake Victoria and its implications for local livelihoods

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of commercialization on the livelihood of local people. The paper attempts to provide an understating of the key elements of the local livelihoods and how they are affected by the process of commercialization within fisheries.

Lake Victoria Fisheries Service Annual Report 1959/60

The Annual report provides information on work carried out on Lake Victoria by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Service during the period 1959/60. It provides annual catch statistics, fisheries control and legislation.

An assessment of the impact of the Nile perch on the fisheries of Lakes Victoria and Kyoga

The combined effects of lack of effective management measures, over-exploitation with destructive fishing gears, and interspecific competition, particularly among tilapiines have had profound effects on the fish stocks of Lakes Victoria and Kyoga. It has been proposed that these have been more important in the decline of the indigenous fisheries than predation or competition from Nile perch. The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the dramatic changes in the fisheries of Lakes Victoria and Kyoga . Both lakes have experienced almost similar changes for which Lates could not have been wholly responsible.

Aquatic weeds, their impacts on fisheries and environment, and their control

Weeds are plants growing in environments where they are undesirable. Aquatic weeds in fresh waters are nuisance or noxious plants growing in association with water in lakes, impoundment, rivers, canals, wetlands, etc. Some waterweeds cause very big financial loss through the socio economic, environmental and ecological impacts they inflict; and through the effort and expense required for their control. Other waterweeds are simply nuisance plants that cause minimal impacts. This paper is intended to introduce aquatic weeds outlining their characteristics, the main socio-economic and environmental impacts associated with them, and the control strategies often applied for their management.

Fishing effort and the impact of fishing gears and fishing methods on fishes and fisheries of Kyoga basin lakes

Lake Kyoga at the time of Worthington Survey (Worthington, 1929) was fished by only natives around it. The fishing gears consisted of locally made basket traps, hooks and seine nets made out of papyrus. Fishing was mainly during the dry season as in wet season, the fishers would revert to crop growing. During 1937 to 1950s Oreochromis variabilis, oreochromis esculentus (Ngege) and Protopterus aethiopicus (Mamba) were the most important commercial fish species and contributed over 95% to the total landings until early 1950s when their proportions started to change as a result of changes in fishing techniques. The tilapiines' were then being caught using mainly basket traps and P.aethiopicus was caught in hooks prior to the mid 1950s.

The role of socio-economics in the sustainable development and management of the fisheries

The fisheries resources of Kyoga basin lakes are of greater socio-Economic significance for the poor rural communities of this area. The lake's fisheries provide the much needed animal protein as well as source of income for the fishers and the rural poor communities. Nationally, Kyoga basin lakes fisheries are economically important in that they contribute 27% of the total national fish production. In addition, more than 15 riparian districts depend on it for food and income. Moreover, fish from lakes Kyoga and Kwania playa major role in the regional export commodity trade earning the country foreign exchange. The perception that heavy exploitation of inland fishery resources threatens a loss of socio-economic benefits to local communities and their governments has prompted the new ways of management.

Options for poverty reduction through community empowerment towards sustainable fisheries resource production and equity

The current situation is that, by any measure, most fisheries worldwide are fully over exploited. This is also true of the Uganda's fisheries where the effort needed to catch fish has increased, and the average size of fish and of stocks have both declined. A productive fisheries offers many benefits: food for local consumption; raw materials for industry; employment that generates income, which in turn encourages other industrial, commercial and service activities; export markets that can be identified and met to generate hard currency, The national economy also benefits from import substitution and·opportunities for increased taxation. But for fisheries to be productive it is not enough to produce, products must be marketed. Fishers have to learn the lesson that it is no longer enough to expect production to drive the market; success will come from producing what the market demands. It is hoped that co-management can play a big role in harnessing the various energies for sustainable development and management of the fisheries resources.

Application of fish biology in management of the fisheries

All biological aspects of the stock are of scientific interest. Specific biological parameters are used either in estimating; yield, or providing a basis for suggesting fisheries management strategies, growth, mortality and stock size are the main determinants of yield, and aspects such as the timing of spawning and recruitment are important in considering management measures. In fisheries science, fish biology contributes in two broad areas; a) Basic biology and distribution of resource spp b) Population dynamics of the species An exploited fish stock is viewed as a simple biological system consisting of stock-biomass which is increased by growth and recruitment, and is reduced by natural-mortality and fishing mortality.

The changing fisheries of Lake Victoria, Uganda

Lake Victoria had a complex multi-species fishery dominated until the late 1970s by the tilapiine and haplochromine cichlids but with important subsidiary fisheries of more than 20 genera of non-cichlid fishes. Since the 1980s, however, the fishery has been dominated by the Nile perch (Lates niloticus), Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus eduardianus) both introduced into the lake during the late 1950s and early 1960s and Rastrineobola argentea, a pelagic cyprinid. Although the actual landed commercial catch figures from the Uganda sector of the lake point to the increased landings since 1984, the catch rates in the experimental trawl fishery and mean weight of fish in both experimental trawl and commercial fishery have been on the decline.

Lake Albert fisheries resources and their management strategy

Lake Albert/Mobutu lies along the Zaire-Uganda border in 43/57 per cent ratio in the faulted depression tending south-west to the north east. It is bounded by latitudes 1o0 n to 2o 20’ N and longitudes 30o 20’ to 31o 20’E. It has a width varying from 35 to 45 km (22 to 28 miles) as measured between the scarps at the lake level. It covers an area of 5600km2 and has a maximum depth of 48m. The major inflow is through the Semiliki, an outflow of Lake Edward, Muzizi and Victoria Nile draining lakes Victoria and Kyoga while the Albert Nile is the outflow. The physical, chemical and biological productivity parameters are summarized in Table 1. The scarp is steep but not sheer and there are at least 4 tracks leading down it to villages on the shore and scarp land scarp is a young one, formed as a result of earth movements of the Pleistocene times, and the numerous streams come down headlong down its thousand feet drop, more often than not in falls (Baker, 1954). Sometimes there appears to be a clean fault; and at other places there is the appearrence of step faulting, although this may be of only a superical nature .The escarpment’s composed of rocks belonging to the pre-Cambrian Basement complex of the content; but the floor of the depression is covered with young sedimentary rocks, known as kaiso beds. In their upper part these latter beds contains many pebbles; whilst low down the occurrence fossiliferous beds is sufficiently rare phenomenon in the interior plateau of Africa. The kaiso beds dated as possibly middle Pleistocene in age, are exposed in various flats on the shore, and they presumably extend under the relatively shallow waters of the lake. A feature of the shore is the development of sandpits and the enclosure of lagoons; and these can be observed in various stages of development at kaiso, Tonya, kibiro, Buhuka and above all, at Butiaba. On an island lake over 1100 km (700 miles) from the shores of the Indian Ocean one can thus study some of the shore-line phenomena usually associated with the sea- coast (Worthington, 1929). In the north, from Butiaba onwards, the flats become wider and from a continuous lowland as the lake shore curves away from the straight edge of the escarpment. At a height of just 610m (2000 feet) above sea-level, the rift valley floor at Butiaba has a mean annual temperature of 25.60c (780 f), from which there is virtually no seasonal variation; and and the mean daily range is only 6.50c (130f) (E.Afr. met. Dept.1953). With a mean annual rainfall of not much more than 762mm (309 inches) and only 92 rain days in ayear, again to judge from Butiaba, conditions in the rift valley are semi-arid; and the vegetation cover consists of grasses and scattered drought-resisting trees and bushes. Only near the stream courses does the vegetation thicken.

Annual Report of the Game and Fisheries Department for the period 1st January, 1954, to 30th June, 1955

The fisheries section of the annual report covers information from the following regions: Lake Albert Region: Introduction Staff Launch Licensing Production Export to the Belgian Congo Marketing Departmental Activities Sporting Fishing Statistics Rainfall and Fish Landing Acholi region Lakes George/Edward Region: Introduction General Lake George The Kazinga Channel-Katunguru Lake Edward Minor Lakes Ruwenzori Trout Fisheries Launch Records of Catches Lake Kyoga Region: Introduction General Lake, Kyoga and Minor Lakes Production and fish farming

Final report of the fisheries catch assessment survey in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria for the May 2014 survey

This report presents findings of the CAS conducted in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria in December 2015. The results of the previous thirteen harmonized CASs conducted since July 2005 (July, August, September and November 2005; in March, August and December 2006; in March and August 2007; in February and December 2008; March 2010; May 2011 and May 2014) are included to show the emerging trends. The report also presents annual catch estimates for the Ugandan part of the lake from 2005 to 2015. This information together with other fish stock assessment and socio-economic monitoring survey data can now be utilized in the planning and management of the fisheries resources of Lake Victoria. The 2014 CAS results were very vital in the development of the Lake Victoria Fisheries Management Plan 2014.

Final report of the fisheries catch assessment survey conducted in December 2015 on the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria

This CAS report provides estimates of the quantities of fish landed in the riparian districts sharing the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria; the monetary value of the fish catches; the contribution of different fish species to the catches; and the trends in fish catch rates, and the monthly catches for the sampled month since the beginning of harmonized CAS activities in July 2005 to December 2015. The report also compares the annual catch and gross beach value of catch landings in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2015. A total of 15 CASs have been undertaken in the Uganda sector of the lake with data gaps in 2009, 2012 and 2013 due to financial constraints. The annual catch estimates for the years 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2015 were based on one sampling covering the rainy season and may not capture changes that could occur in dry season. There is need to include dry season sampling in future surveys.

Socio-economic conditions and challenges of Kyoga lakes fisheries

Over the period 2008 to 2010, NaFIRRI carried out a number of socio-economic studies on the Kyoga lakes to provide an update of the socio-economic conditions of the fisheries and also to address specific areas of fisheries socio-economic issues and development concerns. The data collection was conducted using Key informant interviews, questionnaire sample surveys, Focus Group Discussions, secondary data searches and field observations. The objective of this fact sheet is, therefore, to provide key information from these studies for use at national, district, community levels as well as by other interested stakeholders.

WFF-WFFP-ICSF-CIC: national workshop on capacity-building for the implementation of the voluntary guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries (SSF guidelines) - report, 21 and 22 March 2016 Multi-Purpose Hall, India International Centre, New Delhi, India

The report of the proceedings of the New Delhi workshop on the SSF Guidelines (Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication). The workshop brought together 95 participants from 13 states representing civil society organizations. governments, FAO, and fishworker organizations from both the marine and inland fisheries sectors. This report will be found useful for fishworker organizations, researchers, policy makers, members of civil society and anyone interested in small-scale fisheries, tenure rights, social development, livelihoods, post harvest and trade and disasters and climate change.