Marine Artisanal Fisheries Frame Survey 2014 Report

Fisheries frame surveys play a vital role in the management of coastal artisanal fisheries resources by availing accurate and regularly updated information for policy and management decision-making and provide sampling frames to support various research initiatives. The marine artisanal fisheries frame surveys have been carried out biennially since 2004 save for 2010. The previous survey of 2012 was carried out during the South East Monsoo-n season and hence this one was carried out during the North East Monsoon season for comparison. The objective of the frame survey was to collect, analyze and document critical data on the present fishing effort, landing site facilities, services and infrastructure developments in order to provide a sound basis for fisheries development planning and management decision making. The survey was a complete census of crafts, gears, and fishers operating at the coast and all landing sites facilities and services. Trained enumerators collected data by use of standardized questionnaires and for some landing sites hand held portable GPS devices. Data capture was by data base and analyzed by MS excel and ArcGIS. The results of the survey showed that the total number of landing sites increased by 23.1% from 160 landing sites recorded in the 2012 frame survey to 197 in 2014. The number of fishers dropped to 12,915 compared to 13,706 recorded in 2012. There were 167 women fishers compared to 12,748 male fishers representing 1.3% of the total fishers. The number of active fishing crafts also reduced from 3,090 in the 2012 survey results to 2,913. Dugout canoes were the most prevalent fishing craft type accounting for 47.9%, Dhow with flat at one end (Mashua) (22.1%), Hori (10.8%), Dau (9%), Outrigger boats pointed at both ends (Ngalawa) (5.7%), Mtori (3.1%) Surf and rafts (1.4%) with catamarans recorded as others trailing at 0.1%. Based on the mode of propulsion, most of the crafts are non-motorised, sails (43%) and paddles (33%) are the most important forms of propulsion for the crafts. Other forms of craft propulsion recorded include outboard engines (15%), pole locally known as Pondo (7%) and Inboard engines (2%). A total of 3,325 gill nets of varying mesh sizes were recorded in 2014 a 25.4% decrease from 4,168 recorded in 2012. The largest decline in the number of gears was noted in the longline hooks. A total of 8,127 hooks were recorded compared to 16,476 recorded during the 2012 frame survey. This represented a 50.7% decline in the recorded hooks. Hook size <4 were 3,327 (40%) and size 8- 10 were 3,794 (45%). The fence traps and basket traps were separated during the 2014 survey. Basket traps recorded were 3,898 while the fence traps were 118 all totaling to 4,016 which was a decrease by 9.5% in 2014 compared to 4,438 recorded in 2012. The number of recorded illegal gears decreased across all gear categories as compared with the 2012 frame survey results. The survey recorded 193 beach seines compared to 217 recorded in 2012. Most beach seine nets are in use Lamu 97 (58%), Kwale 43 (22%) with Kilifi and Mombasa recording 26 (13%) and 13 (7%) respectively. Monofilament nets are also decreased with 2,692 nets recorded compared to 3,239 in 2012 survey. The number of spear guns slightly reduced by 7.4% to 962 in 2014 from the previous 1,039 recorded in 2012. The use of fishing and navigational aids was found to be in 149 crafts, depicting minimal use of technology in fishing operations.

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