After previously neglecting the sector the government’s new interest in fisheries reflects greater awareness of the industry’s potential to create new employment opportunities for low income rural communities and to boost foreign exchange earnings from fishery exports.

Untapped resources

Projects planned for implementation over the next few years will be launched as part of wider government efforts to develop the nation’s large untapped aquaculture and marine resources. At the same time efforts are being stepped up to protect the large fresh water fishery at Lake Victoria which is threatened by overfishing and rising pollution from the growing economic and farming activities along its shores.

Kenya recently has started to use a World Bank loan and grant package totalling US$40 million to strengthen the environmentally sustainable management and development of the nation’s coastal and marine fishing industry. Plans call for a large number of mini schemes to be implemented to improve the management and conservation of coastal and marine resources that will benefit coastal communities who are among the lowest income groups in the country.

Kenya’s coastline lies on the Indian Ocean and is 640km long, running from the northern border with Somalia to Tanzanian border in the south. Kenya has 12 nautical miles of territorial waters and an EEZ extending to 200 nautical miles with a total area of 142,400km².

One distinctive feature of the country’s EEZ is the continuous coral reef running parallel to the shore almost the entire length of the coastline. The reef lies from 500m to 2km offshore along the coast and provides the main fishing ground used by coastal fishermen.

At present Kenya’s marine fisheries is mostly artisanal with modern trawling operations being confined mainly to shrimp fishing. Most coastal fishing is carried out in inshore areas within the reef as local fishermen currently do not use fishing boats that can venture further offshore to exploit other areas of the EEZ.

The World Bank project is intended to set up the necessary management and organisational structure for the sustainable development of Kenya’s marine resources by strengthening the institutional capacity of relevant government agencies and enhancing the capacity of small, medium and micro enterprises in selected coastal communities.

The project involves various government ministries including the Ministry of Fisheries development, the Ministry of regional development Authorities and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.

Fisheries development

In addition to boosting the enterprises’ activities and capability, the project will prepare Kenya’s Coastal Province to implement further broad-based fishery development schemes that are planned as part of the government’s Kenya Coastal Development Project initiative. This is expected to be the first of a series of projects to receive investment from the World Bank or donor agencies for fisheries development.

The World Bank project will support governance reform of fisheries management in Kenya’s EEZ including improving the monitoring, control and surveillance of fishing activities. Consultants will be appointed to advise on developing a suitable regulatory system to manage fisheries development in the EEZ. In addition support will be provided in developing sustainable, more profitable inshore fishing practices and to research more about inshore fishery stocks.

Support also will be given to improving management and regeneration of natural resources and biodiversity in the coastal and marine environments. In addition to supporting increase sustainable fishery output, this part of the project will assist in developing marine tourism which is another potential growth industry that could benefit coastal communities.

As not all members of coastal communities are involved in fishing, the World Bank project also will involved improving communications between different government agencies, fishery enterprises and other local interest groups so that economic development along the coastal region is integrated ensuring that new economic activities are compliant with environmental protection regulations and do not harm the sensitive coastal environment.

Plans also call for several sustainable rural communities to be formed in focussed pilot areas along the coastal region that could act as templates for rural community development elsewhere along the coast.

According to the 2006 Kenya Marine Survey there are more than 10,000 coastal fishermen of whom around 9,600 use fishing boats. Around 2,400 fishing boats are in use along the coats of which 135 are motorised while almost 1,000 use paddles and around 1,200 are fitted with sails.

Gill nets, traditional nets and hooks are the most common fishing methods along with traps. Shrimp fishing for export is carried out by a small trawler fleets. The bycatch from shrimp trawling is consumed locally.

Fishing in the EEZ is carried out by foreign registered vessels but whose catch is unrecorded on Kenya’s fishery statistics which would be larger than recorded. Around 30 to 40 purse seiners have been licensed in recent years with the Kenyan Navy under taking occasional patrols to combat illegal fishing by what is suspected to be a sizeable number of unlicensed foreign vessels.

Deep sea fishing is carried out by foreign fishing fleets for tuna and other deep sea species. License fees are regarded as low at present and the government has been urged to set higher license fees to generate greater income which some fishery experts suggest could be worth several million US dollars a year.

According to a desk study by the Commonwealth Secretariat, Kenya’s EEZ could have sufficient resources to for a sustainable catch of about 150,000t a year, more than 15 times the current official production figure which has ranged from 6,000 to 10,000t annually for more than a decade.

Kenya’s official marine fisheries catch figures do not include foreign vessels’ catch even though tuna and some other species are landed in Mombasa for transhipment or for local processing.

Following the purchase of a fisheries research vessel for Lake Victoria, the Ministry of Marine Research has requested funding for marine fisheries research vessel to map and collect data on Kenya’s EEZ. The request may be approached as a fishery development scheme that is suitable for foreign donor funding.

Aquaculture expansion

Meanwhile, the government also is looking to expand inland aquaculture. The area used for aquaculture has grown quickly during the past six years with the number of fishponds having grown almost four-fold from 10,000 in 2005 to around 38,000 today. The area used for aquaculture has grown to about 20,000 hectares during the same period from 720 hectares previously as part of the government’s Sh22 billion economic stimulus package.

More projects are expected in future as Kenya is calculated to have around 1.4 million hectares of land suitable for aquaculture, most of which is untouched.

Freshwater fish production is expected to develop quickly with the Fisheries Development Ministry aiming for 20,000 tonnes of fish production in the short term rising to 100,000t in the medium to long term as the Fish Farming Enterprise section of the Economic Stimulus Package develops.

Employment also has been created with short term employment being provided to over 280,000 youths assisting the Fish Farming Enterprise and indirect employment being created for a further 140,000 people in addition to the fish farmers running the new farms.

Meanwhile, efforts are being increased protect Kenya’s important freshwater capture fisheries which is centred on Lake Victoria but also covers several other important lakes around the country.

The government’s Fisheries Management and Development Bill 2011 seeks to boost sustainable fisheries by banning small mesh nets to boost stocks by preventing under size fish from being caught.

Most fishing on Lake Victoria uses gill nets, beach seines, mosquito seine nets and hooks. According to the Fisheries Department, Nile perch and tilapia caught using mosquito seine nets in most cases are immature. Legal nets have 10mm holes for small fish and 127mm holes for large fish.

Fishing gear dealers have been reported in the local press as saying if the proposed bill passes into law they will be put out of business as most sell fishing nets that will become illegal.

To overcome the problem Ministry of Fisheries officials have said they intend to introduce colour coding. Nets meant for certain lakes or regions will have distinctive colours.

The new bill also seeks to impose limits on the size and species of fish that may be caught, landed or traded. The Ministry is looking to the bill to help enforce regulations that have not been fully enforced previously.

The bill proposes a Sh500,000 fine or up to one year imprisonment for persons caught using illegal fishing nets.

The government is looking to maximise returns from fisheries at a time when demand is rising in both the domestic and export markets. Industry figures show the value of the catch has risen while actual production has fallen, indicating the rising price of Kenya’s fish catch. Fisheries earned around Sh18 billion in 2010, more than double the Sh8.6 billion earned in 2006 according to the Fisheries Ministry.

Meanwhile, plans to develop sustainable freshwater capture fisheries in Kenya and East Africa have started to receive important boost since the launch of a series of World Bank-funded schemes in 2010 to improve the environmental management of Lake Victoria and protect its valuable fishing industry.

Fish production in the Kenyan area of Lake Victoria has dropped over the past five years though a small improvement has been reported recently. Three species account for most of the catch taken from the lake – Nile perch, Nile tilapia and dagaa, a small sardine like fish popular with local income communities and sold dried.

Fish production by Kenyan fishermen fell from 144,000t in 2006 to 109,000t in 2009, picking up slightly to reach 113,000t in 2010. In the 1990s Kenya’s average catch in Lake Victoria was 180,000t annually.

Lake Victoria is the second largest lake in the world and has a surface area of 68,800km². Kenya owns 6% of the lake covering 4,128 km² and owns 550km of the shoreline.

The Victoria Basin region’s growing population has created various problems in recent years as the number of fishermen and fishing boats has risen causing overfishing while pollution and siltation from industrial and agricultural activities in the Basin region are affecting aquatic life in the lake.

Overfishing is now a serious problem which threatens the future sustainability of Lake Victoria’s fishing industry.

Some 44,000 of Kenya’s fishermen fished on Lake Victoria when the last fishing industry survey was conducted in 2006. Some 15,000 boats are used, mostly non-motorised including 8,000 paddle boats and 5,000 sailing boats.

Kenya’s fishermen using fishing gear that includes 217,000 gill nets and 2.6 million longlines. In spite of the traditional equipment used, the export value of Kenya’s exportable catch from Lake Victoria is worth about US$50 million a year.

Following the Lake Victoria Fisheries Frame Survey in 2006 which revealed a sharp in fishermen’s average catch, the World Bank has worked together with the governments of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to establish a joint programme for the three countries to establish sustainable fisheries at Lake Victoria and to promote wider economic development in the Basin region.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are using World Bank loans totalling US$90 million to improve their joint management of Lake Victoria’s shared fisheries and water resources.

Pollution

Pollution control and prevention are a priority with $37.2 million of funding set aside for various schemes including the rehabilitation of old, polluting wastewater treatment plants around Lake Victoria , the establishment of advisory programmes to promote cleaner industrial technology in the region and the installation of navigational facilities to prevent shipping accidents. In addition, contingency planning will be carried out for oil spills and hazardous waste management.

Watershed management also is being addressed with $43.6 million allocated to assist development of sustainable soil and water management practices in the Lake Victoria basin region. Projects will be undertaken at a community level to encourage economic development without causing environmental damage to the lake.

Extension services to encourage efficient use of fertilizer on farms form part of the watershed management scheme. Improved management of fertilizer application will prevent excess crop nutrients draining into the lake where water hyacinth growth has started to increase again.