Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, which share Lake Victoria, continue losing revenues due to plunder of the shared fisheries.

Nile perch is poached for its swim bladder, alongside bycatch of silverfish and juvenile perch, and smuggled through Mpondwe on the border between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

The three countries have decried sustained overfishing and use of illegal fishing gear, blamed for the significant decline in fish in Lake Victoria.

In Uganda, Nile perch fisheries losses are estimated around $1.4 billion, while the Kenya Fisheries Services data shows an 18.8 per cent drop in catch to 70,313 metric tonnes in the year ending December 2023, from 86,394 metric tonnes in 2022.

In Tanzania, the Controller and Auditor-General, in an audit in March, said the country is Contending with a decade-long organised criminal activity in the shared lake.

From July 2023 to September 2024, at least 73,877 tonnes of Nile perch was captured by the fisheries authorities as having been caught, but only 33,106 tonnes went through official channels, leaving 55.1 per cent, or 40,771 tonnes, unaccounted for.

The fishers, fish dealers and fisheries officials at landing sites at Katosi and Cape in Mukono, Kiyindi in Buikwe told The EastAfrican that fishers throw gutted Nile perch back in the lake under the cover of darkness and sell maws on the black market to exporters’ agents.

Usually, the breeding and juvenile Nile perch are targeted making it hard to recover stocks quickly, a practice that robs governments of millions of dollars in revenue every year.

Grace Kasimba, a fish supplier in Jinja and Kampala, says they are struggling to raise the tonnage agreed with processors. Her contract with factories requires that she supplies seven tonnes of Nile perch, but she says she hardly raises these quantities, compelling her to rope in another three suppliers to raise the target volume.

James Karemeera, chairman of the Empuuta Conservation and Stakeholders Association, a save-the-Nile-perch lobby, said they are still contending with banned nets.

“The challenge we face is that when you report to the authorities, no action is taken,” he said.

From July 2023 to September 2024, at least 126,383 tonnes of silverfish were harvested, and 50,553 Nile perch juveniles.

With a 25 percent mortality rate, Uganda would realise 68,247 tonnes valued at $496.8 million annually, based on the average price ratio of Nile perch weight to per tonne.

When the UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit started clamping down on illegal fishers, hopes grew that everybody would play by the rules.

Robert Migadde, MP for Buvuma County, an island on Lake Victoria, claims that fisheries enforcement officers engage in corruption.“Some of them are in fish trade. Some are route managers for immature fish to access markets. Some have participated in confiscating mature fish, which they later sell. Some of them have boats,” Migadde said.

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