Improving Fishery Catch Statistics for Lake Victoria

The fisheries of Lake Victoria are highly dispersed and catch statistical information is insufficient for supporting management. Catch assessment surveys for the three riparian countries were found to be weak or inadequate and a strategy for improving this source of information is proposed. Considerable illegal fishing, using banned gears and small-meshed nets was prevalent and considered to be detrimental to the sustainability of the fishery. The principal problems underlying the poor fishery assessment were inadequate resources, poorly trained and unmotivated personnel, and externalities, such as poverty and poor employment opportunities, which override the resource monitoring and assessment mechanisms.