Lake Victoria Fisheries Research Project, PO Box 2145, Jinja, Uganda. E-mail: lvfrp@source.co.ug

Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on Lake Victoria

The fish catches on Lake Victoria underwent enormous changes during the last two decades. A rapid catch increase occurred in the early 1980s when the fishery targeted the Nile perch. The catches levelled off after a number of years and then started to fluctuate. The Nile perch resources came under pressure by the end of the 20th century and stringent management measures need to be imposed urgently. How reliable, however, are catch statistics? An attempt is made to analyse the methods of estimating catches in the three riparian states of Lake Victoria. Furthermore, the importance of catches from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing should not be underestimated. Illegal fishing methods are discussed as well as the problem of unreported catches and trans-boundary traffic of fish.

Recommendations are presented to improve the data collection systems and catch estimates.