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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Residents at Koome islands in Mukono district involved in restocking of indigenous fish species have decried the increasing illegal fishing activities and lack of barriers to prevent them against the predatory Nile perch.
Residents operating under Hope for Nature, a Community Based Organization supported by People’s Trust for Endangered Species-PTES in the United Kingdom started restocking the lake with the singida tilapia fish, locally known as Empongo in December 2020 at six conservation lake bays in Koome Islands.
The society has to date restocked the lake with 21,000 singida tilapia fingerlings as part of a two-year project which intends to restock the lake with 40,000 fingerlings. However, the residents say that their efforts have been frustrated by fishermen who are using illegal fishing gear and the lack of barriers such as cages to prevent the Nile perch from crossing the deep end of the waters.
William Isebaidu, the Hope for Nature project team leader says that the singida fish does not grow big in size and is hard to be trapped with Lake Victoria authorized fishing nets of five inches. A grown-up singida fish requires a fishing net of 3.5 to 4 inches.
Josephine Nasuuna, a resident at Koome notes that the demand for the other fish species was high before the Nile perch became popular in the lake, but its stocks have greatly reduced. She fears that even with restocking, fishermen beat Fisheries Protection Unit-FPU forces to illegally trap the restocked fish.
Romulus Mulambi, the Mukono District Fisheries Officer said he received similar concerns from the residents and that they are working with the Fisheries Protection Unit to intensify security operations and protect the restocked fish species which are highly sought after.
The Mukono Resident District Commissioner Fatuma Ndisaba appeals to residents of Koome to embrace the project of restocking the lake by avoiding illegal fishing.
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