Culture and Arts PS roots for new fishing methods

Dunga Cage Culture project manager Mr John Okech adjust the fish cages in Lake Victoria. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The government is preparing to roll out a fish caging project for lakeside communities in Siaya County to help address the rapidly dwindling fish resources in Lake Victoria.
  • The PS cited over-fishing, use of unwanted fishing nets, water-hyacinth infestation and failure to observe the fishing embargo during the breeding seasons, as factors contributing to dwindling catches.
  • A standard, ten-foot square metal cage costs an average Sh70,000 and can be stocked with up to 5,000 fish fingerlings.

The Principal Secretary for Culture and Arts Joe Okudo has called for the adoption of new fishing methods. Mr Okudo has said traditional fishing methods have led to the rapid exhaustion of fish in most lakes in the country.

This comes as the government is preparing to roll out a fish caging project for lakeside communities in Siaya County to help address the rapidly dwindling fish resources in Lake Victoria.

Mr Okudo, while addressing 50 representatives of youth and co-operative societies at Pride Inn Hotel in Bondo Town, Siaya County on Sunday, said that traditional fishing methods have been a 'one-way extraction' without any deliberate efforts to re-stocking the fish population, a practice that should be abandoned.

"Traditional fishing methods may have been a hallmark of the Luo culture and served the community well for generations but now declining yields mean that the community have to adopt the mass-scale rearing of fish in metal cages in the lake," said Mr Okudo.

The PS cited over-fishing, use of prohibited fishing nets, water-hyacinth infestation and failure to observe the fishing embargo during the breeding seasons, as factors contributing to the dwindling catches.

“The previously dominant Nile Perch is now hardly countable in Lake Victoria, the result of a decades-long surge in factories which specialized in harvesting the Nile Perch for its fleshy and oily fillet mainly for export,” he said.

FISH CAGING

The renewed attention towards fish caging also comes at a time of great debate on the flavour and nutritional variance between 'fish-pond, inland' fish and the 'free-range 'Lake fish and it is equally shadowed by a recent reported controversy in which fish imports from China were selling in the markets at much cheaper prices than the delicious Tilapia and Nile Perch.

Mr Okudo said the Department of Culture is collaborating with the Lake Basin Development Authority to realise the project which is aimed at establishing a secure and sustainable income especially for young people.

He also announced that a series of intensive courses are planned to enable the co-operative leaders master the effective management methods of the fish cages, including construction of the cages, fingerlings handling, feed quality, growth monitoring and market research.

A standard, ten-foot square metal cage costs an average Sh70,000 and can be stocked with up to 5,000 fish fingerlings. Once the cages are secured in the lake, the young male 'Tilapia' are fed on an intensive protein diet sourced mainly from vegetable sources such as sunflower seeds, soy beans and cotton seed-cake.

The fish mature within six months at which they are ready for 'harvesting' and sale. Female species are not stocked in the cages because of the danger of over-breeding.