National report of the frame survey 2006 in the Ugandan part of Lake Victoria

Fisheries Frame surveys have been carried out on Lake Victoria biannually since2000 to determine· the number of fishers, fish landing sites, facilities at thelanding sites. Information on the composition fishing crafts, their mode ofpropulsion, fishing gears and the fish species they target is also collected. Thisinformation is used to guide development and management of the lake'sfisheries.The results of the four surveys carried out since 2000 show that the number oflanding sites has decreased by 24% from 597 in 2000 to 481 in 2006, mainly asresult of reorganisation of landing sites into Beach Management Units (BMUs).The fish landing sites continue to have inadequate facilities to service thefisheries industry e.g. in the 2006 survey only 11.2% of landing sites had fishshades; <0.6% had cold rooms; 3.5% had electricity; and only 35.5% had toiletfacilities. Similarly, only 11.4% of landing sites had portable water; 2.5% hadjetties, 3.7% had 'fish stores; and 36% were accessible by all weather roads.There is need to improve facilities servicing fisheries at landing sites, with major emphasis on sanitary facilities, especially toilets and portable water. The BMUs should be sensitised to prioritise the construction and utilisation of public toilet facilities at their respective landing sites. The ultimate aim should be to have public toilets at all fish landing sites.The trend of the various indicators of fishing effort has continued upwards: The total number of fishers increased by 43.5% from 37,721 in 2004 to 54,148 in2006 and the number of fishing crafts increased (43.9%) from 16,775 in 2004 to24,148 in 2006 over the same period. The total number of gillnets increased by28.6% from 458,597 in 2004 to 589,777 in 2006 and the number of long linehooks increased by 136% from 968,848 to 2,285,609. The number of fishingcrafts using outboard engines also increased from 3,173 in 2004 to 5,047 in 2006suggesting that more fishers were going far in search of fish.There is still a large number of illegal gears especially beach seines, whichincreased by 58.8% from 954 in 2004 to 1420 in 2006. Efforts to remove thesevery destructive gears should be stepped up. There was also larger increase innumber of illegal gillnets <5 inch mesh size. These increased by 63% from56,246 in 2004 to 91,740 in 2006 compared with 23.8% increase of gillnets ~5inch mesh size. There were also large increases in the numbers of gillnets of 5and 5% inch mesh size, which increased by 48% and 130% from 2004 to 2006implying a trend towards use of smaller gillnet mesh sizes.The number of traps which are used in shallow vegetated areas, flood plains andriver mouths to target tilapiines and riverine species decreased drastically from5,361 traps in 2004 to only 499 traps in 2006, a decrease of 974%, a phenomenon attributed to the receding water levels which have left the shallowvegetated areas dry. A total of 17,475 fishing crafts, 72% of all fishing crafts, in the Ugandan part ofthe lake are still using paddles and the. number of parachute crafts is also stillvery high, (Le. 5,064) comprising a high proportion (21 %) of the total number offishing. There is need to promote the use of large fishing crafts with sails or acombination of sail and outboard motor.The Mukene fishery in the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria has remainedunderdeveloped with only 9% of all fishing crafts operating in this fishery. Alsoless than 2% of fishing crafts with sails or motor operate in this fishery whichimplies that it is limited to near shore waters. Effort should be made to developthis fishery as it appears to have high potential, especially in deep offshorewaters which are hardly fished.