By John Oywa

The East African Community is racing against time to save one of the region’s top foreign exchange earners — the Lake Victoria Nile Perch — whose dwindling population has alarmed conservationists.

Shocked by a recent report that the Nile Perch population have declined from 1,200,000 tonnes in 2000 to a mere 331,000 tonnes last year, the EAC’s Council of Ministers has now launched a Sh129.6 million ($1.8 million) "Operation Save the Nile Perch" campaign.

The three partner States — Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — sharing the lake are expected to contribute Sh43.2 million ($600,000) each for the campaign targeting use of illegal fishing gear.

The practice has been blamed for harvesting of under-age Nile Perch and destruction of breeding zones.

"The council has approved funding of $1.8 million to be contributed by each EAC partner states for emergency actions of the campaign," said a communiquÈ obtained by The Standard on Sunday.

The report says the decision follows the second emergency meeting by the Council of Ministers of the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO) in Nairobi two months ago.

"The operation is meant to clean-up illegalities (illegal fishing nets) by January 2010 and to reverse the drastic decline of Nile perch biomass in Lake Victoria," said the statement.

Top organ

The LVFO council of ministers is the top organ that makes decision on fisheries issues in the region. Its current chairman is Uganda’s Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Ms Hope Mwesigye with Kenya’s fisheries Minister Paul Otuoma as the vice-chairman.

Reports from various Beach Management Units (BMUs) from the three countries indicate an upsurge in the use of illegal nets and a remarkable increase in the number of fishermen operating in the lake.

A senior researcher at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institute, Dr Richard Abila said the increased use of under-size nets was undermining efforts to conserve the lake’s fisheries.

A BMU official from Nyandiwa beach in Nyatike, Frederik Odhiambo said fisheries officials had failed to stop the harvesting of immature fish. "The number of fishermen using illegal fishing gears has increased ten-fold. Just go to the beaches or any fish market and see for yourself. They are selling under-age fish," said Odhiambo.

The ministers say they had set a target to reduce use of illegal gears by 50 per cent by June last year and 100 per cent by December last year using the 2008 Frame Survey data but the target has not been reached. The Frame survey captures the number of fishermen on the lake and the type of fishing gears they used.

Unorthodox methods

But the campaign has fallen short of its target as more fishermen resort to unorthodox ways of fishing. In their report released after the Nairobi meeting the council of ministers said a study by ‘competent authorities’ and the BMUs revealed widespread illegalities and that outlawed gears were quickly replaced.

"The efforts, so far, undertaken have not significantly changed the status of the illegalities and the partner states cannot remove them and that the Nile perch biomass in Lake Victoria remains threatened," they said in the report.

Sources at the Kenya’s Fisheries Ministry told The Standard On Sunday that the partner states were now working on the implementation of a harmonised action plan to help end illegal fishing.

The council of ministers meet again this month in Uganda to review the situation in the region’s fisheries sector. Experts say fish catch has been increasing over the years due to overfishing.