Fishing issues threaten Kenya’s Lake Naivasha

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – Kenya’s Lake Naivasha, part of the Great Rift Valley, is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.

The freshwater lake, which has been marked as being of international importance, supports a rich biological ecosystem that is home to hundreds of bird species that can be found locally and others which are migratory and travel from as far as Europe and the Americas to come and breed in Kenya.

According to the Kenya Wildlife Service, Lake Naivasha is also home to the African buffalo, zebra, eland, hartebeest, Thomson's gazelle and baboons, which are common.

The park is also home to giraffes, the waterbuck, klipspringer antelope, waterfowls, bushbucks and Chandler's mountain reedbuck among many other creatures that rely on the riparian meadows and acacia backwoods that have always been supported by the lake.

Not only flora and fauna benefit from the lake. Communities around the lake also rely on it for fishing, which is a common way for the locals to earn a living, while others who keep livestock flock to areas around the lake which all year round have green grass that provides fodder for their livestock with naturally occurring grazing and water points.

But currently, the lake is under threat. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has grown rampant since 2019 after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Economic effects

Despite the lake’s existence being threatened by horticultural farms that dot its shores, requiring vast amounts of water for irrigation every day, the most immediate threat to the lake now is overfishing, which is unregulated and underreported.

55-year-old Lisa Kanyambu, a fish vendor in the Karagita area of Lake Naivasha, has witnessed firsthand the effects of Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on the lake and gave reasons why such fishing has increased.

“Many people around here used to work in flower farms. We are among the leading exporters of flowers around the world. This has always supported thousands of families from here, but the COVID-19 disease has led to massive job losses,” she said, noting that the whole economy has been affected.

Kenyan flower farms have been sending home workers due to the economic effects of the novel coronavirus. The country’s horticulture industry -- its third-largest foreign exchange earner, garnering around $1.15 billion annually -- is suffering from lockdowns caused by the coronavirus in its main markets in Europe.

“Now that people have no jobs, they are going back to fishing. We had licensed people who would go fishing and bring us fishmongers what they caught and we would sell it locally. Nowadays, everyone is fishing and everyone is selling, so prices are so low. The demand is there because people have no food, and that is how there is increased and unregulated fishing.”

COVID-19 has stripped people of their jobs not only at flower farms but in other industries. The locals have gone back to the only way they are sure of earning a livelihood -- fishing.

- Bycatch

June 5 is the International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, and for Kenya, the problem is rife due to unlicensed fishers.

Unscrupulous fishermen are in turn endangering not only the livelihoods like that of Kanyambu but also leading to dwindling stocks of various types of fish commonly found in the lake. The fishers at times use unauthorized nets, catching both young and endangered fish.

“New people in the industry will just come to fish with anything, [ranging] from mosquito nets to nets used to package onions and other things. When we receive fish to sort, you will find very small fish that you cannot even sell in the market,” said Jane Githaka, another fishmonger.

The Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) says that bycatch, or unwanted fish and other marine creatures caught during commercial fishing for a different species, is among the greatest threats to marine animals, noting that strategies to reduce the bycatch of non-target species are needed and should focus on the most vulnerable species.

Doctor Immaculate Maina from the Ministry for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries in Nakuru county, told a media conference that the lake is facing many challenges.

“There is pressure on the lake because of the COVID challenge. Aside from that, there are other challenges such as that of illegal fishers, collusion, corruption and other things. That is why we have started making changes in the industry,” she said.

“It is us from the local community who know where the illegal nets are being manufactured. Anybody handling [fishing] gear will have to be licensed by our office. Anybody importing, selling…anything to do with gear -- both nets and hooks -- must be licensed by the office of the director.”

Maina said that close to 200 fishers had been licensed against thousands of illegal fishers.

KMFRI says the country is keen on protecting its lakes as the Kenya government’s economic blueprint, Vision 2030, has prioritized fisheries among the sectors with a high potential for spurring national economic growth.

Consequently, fisheries are increasingly being recognized as among the most important renewable natural resources that contribute to food and nutritional security as well as the livelihoods of millions of Kenyans.

Along Kenya's Indian Ocean coastline, the problem of Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing has also been reported, but such incidences have gone down since Kenya launched the Coast Guard Service (CGS) to fight rampant illegal fishing in 2018.

KMFRI says that curbing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing “remains one of the greatest MCS [Monitoring, Control and Surveillance] challenges in Kenya.

It said that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing occurs in all dimensions of fisheries, both on the high seas in exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and within nearshore areas, and it may sometimes be associated with organized crime, such as the threat of piracy, which has affected access to EEZ fisheries in recent years with major implications for the collection of data and vessel inspections.

Before COVID-19, KMFRI said the economic loss from Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing was estimated to be around KES 10 billion ($92.8 million).