Are the exploitation pressures on the Nile perch fisheries resources of Lake Victoria a cause for concern?

Abstract Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes, and an important source of affordable protein food in the form of fish. It provides employment, income, and export earnings to the riparian communities. Despite this importance there are major concerns about the status and exploitation of the fisheries. This study assesses if current extraction rates/yield of Nile perch, Lates niloticus (L.), from Lake Victoria are sustainable for the foreseeable future. The paper reviews trends in catch and effort in the Nile perch fishery and models the expected scenarios using ECOPATH. The fishery exhibits, classic indicators of intensive fishing, erring towards overexploitation, including: (i) decline in total estimated catch of Nile perch in recent years from the peaks in the 1990s. This is coupled with a shift in contribution of catches from higher trophic level species (Nile perch) to lower trophic level (dagaa) species. (ii) Three major trends in the fishing effort are evident: (a) almost doubling of the number of fishers and fishing boats between 1990 and 2000, and the even greater expansion between 2000 and 2002; (b) a large scale increase in the number of gears operational in the lake; and (c) the propensity for use of ‘illegal’ gears. (iii) Catch‐per‐unit‐effort has declined from about 80 to 45 kg per boat day. (iv) Predictive modelling (ECOSIM) of the future of the Nile perch fisheries under a scenario of increased fishing effort suggests that the fisheries are unsustainable and will decline in the long term. It appears that the Nile perch stocks in the three riparian countries are under intense fishing pressure, and unless concerted action is taken, the potential for degradation of the resources is prevalent. In view of the importance of these fisheries, it is recommended that a precautionary approach to further intens‐ification of the fisheries is adopted until such time empirical evidence shows that the fisheries are capable of further expansion and intensification. The main options for management are devolvement of responsibilities for the fisheries to the communities, enforcement of existing regulations, improved monitoring and data collection processes, reducing post‐harvest losses and increasing the value of the products to the export market.