4. CAPTURE FISHERIES: STATUS AND DEVELOPMENT

4.1 Status of the capture fisheries in Kenya

4.1.1 Public sector of the capture fisheries. The Kenya Department of Fisheries (DOF, Ministry of Wildlife and Tourism) has primary responsibility for fisheries management and development (Fig. 12). Other Ministries, including the Ministries of Cooperative Development, of Works and of Power and Communications, are also responsible for activities related to fishing operations. These include fishermens' cooperatives, roads and landing facilities.

The Department of Fisheries has an antenna in Kisumu (DOF/Western) responsible for fishery development in western Kenya, particularly the Lake Victoria fishery. Total staff numbers 487 among which 122 full-time fish scouts and 47 fishery assistants are directly involved in the field, most of them in the lake fishery (Table 19).

The Kenya Fishing Industries Ltd. (KFI) established in 1970 is a transhipment cold storage facility in Mombasa which operates a number of trawling vessels. The company is Government owned, but has been financed by foreign investors. There are plans to acquire more vessels, establish a fish cannery and a fish meal processing plant.

The Kenya Fishnet Company Ltd. (KFC) was built in 1971 in Kisumu. It is jointly owned by the Kenyan Government (43%), the Hirata Spinning Co. Ltd. from Japan (45%), and fishermens cooperatives (12%). The plant capacity is adequate to supply all domestic net requirements.

Fishery research. Since the collapse of the East African Community in 1977, responsibility for all research has become national. Fishery Department stations have undertaken local research, but this has been minimal as the greatest portion of the available manpower did not have the adequate technical background and were fully occupied with the collection of statistical data and the enforcement of fishery regulations. A separate autonomous body, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) have now become responsible for scientific research, from two main centres in Mombasa and Kisumu. In July 1981, a symposium was organized in Mombasa to identify future priorities in research (Sec. 3.2.2 and 3.3.2).

Fisheries training. The Zoology Department of the University of Nairobi offers an aquatic ecology degree, which dwells on subjects related to fishery management and hydro-biology. About 5 M.Sc. and 20 B.Sc. students graduate every year. Technical training of middle and lower cadres of staff will be provided from 1983 at the Wildlife and Fisheries Training Institute in Naivasha.

4.1.2 Private sector of the capture fisheries. It has been estimated that fishing provides the main source of income to about 31 000 fishermen and a large number of fish traders (Anon. 1980). Both marine and inland fishing methods are generally traditional and labour intensive with operations limited to shallow waters. Most of the catch comes from about 7 000 small craft landing between 20 – 50 kg/day.

Fishermen generally receive 20 – 30% of the retail value of the fish cropped. Annual earnings vary from Ksh.4 000 – 5 000, less various expenses such as boat repairs, net repairs and licences. As a result fishing is considered as a low status occupation. This has led to the situation where rich fishermen prefer to employ a labour force to operate their gear or many fishermen are employed by or operate nets on behalf of an external benefactor (Kongere, 1979). Up to 40 – 50% of the canoes may therefore not be owner operated. Fishermens cooperatives operate in most areas, but they tend to be inefficient and of little benefit to the fishermen.

Several private companies are engaged in wholesale and retail fish marketing, cold storage and transport. The larger companies include Samaki Industries (Kenya) Ltd., Kenya Cold Stores, Wanainchi Marine Products and Ocean Products. These are primarily fish traders, but some of them operate their own fishing vessels.

There are few experienced builders of modern mechanised offshore vessels. They manufacture mainly sport fishing and leisure crafts as, for example, Specialised Moulding Ltd.

Sport fishing, though not of high commercial value from the fish sales aspect, represents a substantial generator of foreign revenues as it caters for the tourist industry. Mombasa, Malindi, Shimoni, and to a lesser extent Kisumu, are the main centres.

4.2 Status of the marine capture fishery

4.2.1 General. Most of Kenya's coastline (640 km) is fringed by coral reefs. The 100 fathom (183 m) isobath runs close to the shore, except north of Malindi. Here it is found more than 30 km offshore and it is in this region that trawlers operate. Current production is poor and recent surveys indicate that the potential for increase is low.

The bulk of the catch is harvested inside the reef by 11 000 artisanal fishermen using handlines, drifting gillnets, trolling lines, traps or seines. They also dive for lobsters and molluscs.

In 1980, marine landings amounted to 5 336 t approximately subdivided into 50% demersal fish, 15% pelagic fish and 7.5% crustacea.

4.2.2 Research. Research currently underway on marine resources includes work on pelagic fish (Nzioka, 1981), on demersal fish (De Souza, 1981), on sardines (Wakwabi, 1981), on crustacea (Muthiga, 1981; Mutagyera, 1981; Kazungu, 1981) and on algae/seaweeds (Ruwa, 1981). Other research includes oceanographic studies (Mutua, 1981), pollution (Munga, 1981; Onyari, 1981) and fish quality control (Hussein, 1981).

4.3 Status of the freshwater capture fisheries, except Lake Victoria

4.3.1 General. In 1980, 89% (42 286 t) of the total fish production from Kenyan waters originated from the freshwater capture fisheries. Among these, the Lake Victoria fishery produced 63.6% and Lake Turkana 29.2% (Table 9). The remaining fish yield came from such lakes as Baringo, Naivasha, Nakuru, Jipe, Hannington, Elementaita, Kanyaboli and Magadi and from such rivers as the Tana, Nzoia, Yala and Athi/Sabaki (Sec. 2.6.4). Generally, average fish yields range from 5 to 30 kg/ha/yr, below the African average (Lowe McConnell, 1975).

The Lake Turkana fishery has recently been developed by a NORAD aid scheme and catches have initially increased four fold. However, they now appear to be on the decline and overfishing of tilapia breeding grounds is suspected.

Table 27

Mean fish catch per canoe (CPC) and per fisherman (CPF) in Lake Victoria
(acc. Fisheries Department Statistical Records, 1971–81)

^a Survey by Butcher and Colaris (1975)
^b Nordic Survey by Hansen (1981)

Table 28

Annual landing and proportional representation of the seven major species of fish caugh in Lake Victoria
(acc. Fisheries Department Statistical Records, 1971–81)

Table 29

L. Victoria Fishing Cooperatives: landing beaches, number of fishermen and canoes
(adapted from Hansen, 1981)

^a = proposed cooperative, now abandoned
^p = proposed
* = indicated those beaches used by the Fishery Department to monitor statistics