The Nile perch rose to become the backbone of the lake zone economy, supporting 300,000 livelihoods directly and another three million indirectly, but the fish is now on the brink of extinction, posing a serious threat to Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest fresh water lake.

The Nile perch, or Lates niloticus, as it is known scientifically, is a large freshwater fish introduced in Lake Victoria in 1954 by the British government to increase the fish population. It can grow to a length of two metres and weigh 200 kilogrammes.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, before the introduction of fish processing plants in lake zone regions, Nile perch, or sangara as it is known among locals, was virtually valueless and was favoured mainly by ordinary families that could not afford more expensive fish like tilapia.

But between 1992 and 2004, the status of the Nile perch rose dramatically, becoming a delicacy of the elite in European countries, thanks to findings by scientists that the fish has valuable Omega-3 fatty acids that help to check heart problems and high blood pressure.

Today, nearly 22 years since the Nile perch was first exported from Tanzania, the situation is alarming following a sharp decline in stocks in Lake Victoria caused by, among other factors, overfishing.

READ: Dire consequences as Lake Victoria’s water levels drop

Many fishermen here face a bleak future as Nile perch stocks steadily dwindle, thanks to failure by the government and other stakeholders to enforce sustainable fishing in Lake Victoria. As fishermen count their losses, so do the multimillion-dollar fish processing factories, which have also been forced to lay off workers to stem losses.

By the end of 2004 when the export of Nile perch fillet was at its peak, about Tsh600 million ($363,000) went directly into the pockets of fishermen and middlemen daily. Thousands of fishermen in Lake Victoria and their middlemen were pocketing a whopping $132 million annually during those golden days.

During a two-week investigation where we visited fishing camps and fish processors and interviewed various stakeholders, we found that neither cotton nor coffee has ever fetched such a huge amount of money in the past two decades.

By the end of 2006, there were an estimated 200,000 fishermen operating 65,000 boats who were engaged in Nile perch fishing on Tanzania’s side of Lake Victoria.

Europe exports

More than 180 tonnes of fresh Nile perch were processed daily, ready to be exported to Europe. EU countries were consuming 80 per cent of the total Nile perch fillet from the lake. The value of annual exports of Nile perch fillet rose from zero in January 1992 to above $180 million by the end of 2004, according to details gathered by The Citizen.

At Mwanza Airport, there was an average of five cargo planes with a capacity of 100 tonnes waiting to fly Nile perch fillet to Europe every week. Mwanza, a town founded by German colonial agent Emin Pasha in 1892 as a cotton trading centre, changed gradually from a cotton to Nile perch-oriented economy.

But today, the only legacy remaining here is the statue of a Nile perch located at the junction of Station and Kenyatta roads – a place where amateur photographers earn a living as residents flock to take pictures. Fishermen are puzzled and don’t know what happened.

Nestory Kulinda, 61, is now a frustrated man after declining Nile perch stocks brought his once booming fishing business to its knees. Sitting in front of Travellers Lodge, which he built in 2001 along Zamzam Street in Bukoba, Mr Kulinda says: “My fishing boats are gathering fungi at the Igabilo landing site in Bukoba Rural District.

“I built this lodge using the income I got from selling Nile perch. Even the shoes I’m wearing now are from the Nile perch,” says the man who once thrived as one of the leading fishermen in Bukoba.

He says he started the fishing business in 1987 before expanding it in 1993 after the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) issued loans to artisanal fishermen to buy fishing gear. “FAO found that most of the fishermen remained poor. They could not even afford a transistor radio, let alone a bicycle,” he says, adding that in 1993 he secured a Tsh760,000 loan (Sh40,000) from CRDB Bank through the FAO arrangement.

“I used the loan to buy an outboard engine and fishing hooks. One of the conditions for securing a loan was that one should have a fishing boat,” he says.

He started the fishing business and repaid the loan in July 1994, and secured another Tsh820,000 loan from CRDB Bank in 1995.
He had already acquired two outboard engines by that time. Between 1995 and 2000, his daily catch averaged a tonne of fresh Nile perch worth Tsh1,700,000 (Sh90,000) at the price of Tsh1,700 (Sh90) per kilo.

So, what happened?

As the demand for Nile perch soared in Europe, so did the number of boats and fishing nets on the lake. From fishermen to factory owners, everybody was in a rush to make a killing – and the government opened the door to what Mr Kulinda says was “uncontrolled fishing”.

From beach seines to small-size fishing nets that catch immature fish, nobody cared – it was survival of the fittest.

Mr Kulinda says the problem started in 1995 – two years after the first fish processing factory was opened in Mwanza – followed by more plants in Kagera and Mara regions.

“The fish processors started to buy Nile perch in bulk at very attractive prices. Fish agents built huge boats that could carry up to 20 tonnes of Nile perch. There were hundreds of these kinds of boats, which collected fish from small-scale fishermen.”

Mr Kulinda says at that time when he had 30 fishing boats, some of his colleagues had up to 80 boats, turning fishing into a free-for-all affair as thousands of fishermen scrambled for the rich pickings. He says that at the time, fishing of immature Nile perch was minimal because there were plenty of mature Nile perch weighing between three and 200 kilogrammes.

There was a time when Nile perch floated to the water’s surface and fishermen just picked them up. But that era is gone and fishermen have now turned to fishing immature Nile perch to survive.

Today, thousands of fishermen like Mr Kulinda have had their livelihoods and dreams ruined because of the sharp decline in Nile perch stocks in the lake. Fish that can be caught using legal nets are those measuring between 50cm and 85cm long while those measuring above 85cm are not harvested because they are considered parent stock. Fish weighing under a kilogramme are considered immature.

READ: Tanzania blast fishing getting out of control

This scramble for Nile perch has created an economic as well as ecological disaster, according to some fisheries experts. Today, there are more fishing nets in the lake than fish.

The Citizen’s efforts to obtain the government’s side of the story proved futile for the past two weeks as no one was willing to discuss the current situation in Lake Victoria.

However, investigations revealed the following: first, the government introduced a ban on beach seines, which were considered a threat to the Nile perch population; second, all fishing nets that measure below five inches were outlawed because they were also considered a threat to immature Nile perch.

The government also introduced patrols to curb illegal fishing. But all these efforts could not save the Nile perch because they were not sustainable. The efforts were also hampered by lack of funding from the government.

The Citizen established that most of the programmes to save Lake Victoria that were initiated between from 1990 to 2000 were donor-funded – financed by the European Union, and the World Bank.

“Corruption became a major obstacle in efforts to save the lake because fishermen resorted to bribing fisheries officials at the regional level to allow the use of beach seines and outlawed fishing nets,” a fish processor told The Citizen.

EU ban

“That’s why today tonnes of immature Nile perch are sold locally and some smuggled to Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Is the ban strictly enforced? Where do these tonnes of immature Nile perch come from?” he asks.

Kenya, which has only six per cent of Lake Victoria but more fish processing plants than Tanzania and Uganda that jointly own 94 per cent of the lake, had greatly benefited from the ban imposed by Tanzania.

“We both agreed that the three countries should introduce sustainable fishing by stopping the buying, processing and exporting of immature Nile perch, but our counterparts in Kenya have been doing the opposite. They are even offering higher prices than us in order to attract fish smugglers from Tanzania… the result is that by smuggling immature fish, we kill the lake as well as thousands of jobs,” the Tanzanian processor says.

In 2004, fisheries experts from the three countries proposed an introduction of seasonal fishing – fishing for nine months a year and a three-month halt to allow Nile perch to reproduce. But because of lack of joint efforts to coordinate the proposal and greed among both fish processors and fishermen, the idea did not work.

When EU countries imposed a one-year ban on Lake Victoria fish following allegations of the use of pesticides by fishermen, Nile perch stocks almost tripled.

“What we saw during the one year actually convinced us that if we can jointly enforce seasonal fishing, we would allow Nile perch to reproduce, but there was no political will among EAC members,” the processor says.

Another processor, who also did not want to be named, warns: “This is what is going to lead to the demise of the Nile perch.” He suggests that if the government sets aside about $2 million (Sh178 million) per year for the removal of illegal fishing gear, the Nile perch will rebound rapidly as it is a prolific breeder.

One female Nile perch lays between 10 million and 20 million eggs annually.

He adds that this money could be recovered through increased revenues in royalty, taxes and VAT on goods that would be traded. But today it is business as usual as fishermen fish 24 hours a day, 365 days as they scramble for dwindling Nile perch stocks.

“When Uganda wants to fight Kenya over a tiny island in Lake Victoria, it’s not just about a piece of land, but Nile perch… we have come from plenty to almost nothing,” the processor says.

More than 2,000 people employed in 11 Nile perch processing factories in Mwanza, Kagera and Mara regions might have lost their jobs as factories take measures to cope with the situation. Some fish processing factories have already closed down and more could follow as the situation worsens.

Food vendors commonly referred to as mama ntilie, fishing boat makers, fuel retailers and street hawkers will also be badly hit. Local government authorities and the central government will no longer get royalties from the fish.

Fishing boat owners, boat crew members, fish agents and handlers, fish traders and processors, cooks, net mounters and repairers and bait fishers and suppliers who make a living directly from the exploitation of the Nile perch will also be affected.

Ben Mashimba, a long-time fisherman, says most of the wealthy fishermen who had secured loans to buy fishing boats have run bankrupt, forcing them to sell their posh cars and houses to repay their loans. “Most of the posh houses you see in this city (Mwanza) were built during those glory days when the Nile perch was our saviour,” he adds.

Before 2010, he used to bring in 20 tonnes of Nile perch in three days in one boat but nowadays he gets five tonnes only after toiling for about a month.

The fisherman observes: “Mwanza thrived on the Nile perch, gold and cotton. But the Nile perch is on the verge of extinction, gold is not benefiting us and cotton is faced with a myriad of problems.”