The Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) at the Bugonga landing site in Entebbe burnt thousands of illegal fishing gear that were impounded in Wakiso district during the past three months.
These illegal fishing gears included 465 beach/boat seines, 7200 beach/boat seines ropes 30 meters, 1570 gill nets 2-4 inches, 17015 monofilament 2-6 inches, 62 cast nets 2-5 inches, 53900 hooks, 52 basket traps 1-3 inches and 68 tycoons 3-5 meters impounded from Bugonga landing site, Gerenge landing site, and Kigungu – Ndese.
The final disposal that took place on Friday, 2nd August, was before the Entebbe Chief Magistrate, Stella Maris Amabilis, in the presence of the applicant.
Her worship Stella Maris Amabilis appreciated the FPU team, fishing community leaders, and all individuals who have tried to fight illegal fishing in the country.
She also highlighted that some fishermen do not respect the fish in the water hence ending up catching immature fish which costs the country a lot and therefore appealed to them to stop using illegal fishing gears for the good of both the country and the next generation.
“There is a law already in place where you will be punished even the people who have these nets will be punished, so please try to abide by the law and make sure that you use legal nets to avoid being arrested through the new fishing act,” the Entebbe Chief Magistrate added.
Amabilis concluded with an emphasis that anybody who will be found with such illegalities directly or indirectly, will have to be taken to the court and therefore urged the fishermen to not be tempted in any illegal fishing activity.
Major Frank Kanzira, the operation officer for the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU), asked fishing communities, especially those that are still dealing in illegal fishing, to stop it immediately and work together with the unit because such illegalities cause losses in terms of both resources and the product itself.
“Such people that deal in illegal fishing are wasting their money because, based on the court order today, we are burning illegal fishing gear worth shs. 931 million, which is the waste of their money that would have been used in a meaningful manner, therefore let them embrace good fishing methods to avoid losses,” he said.
Samuel Namukonge, the Entebbe Municipal Council fisheries officer, remarked that most of the illegal fishing gears are smuggled into the country and therefore, called for a collective collaboration in this fight to save the fish for generations to come.
“We are not destroying because we want to destroy, but we are trying to conserve our fish for now and the next generation. If we left all these illegalities in the lake even next year, you may not be able to find fish in the lake, so what we do is to find ways of getting out of such illegal fishing gears and destroy them,” he noted.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, illegal fishing involves using less than five-inch fishing nets for Tilapia and less than seven-inch fishing nets for Nile Perch. It also entails using fishing boats that are less than 20 feet in length.
It is estimated that Uganda loses USD 430 million from unregulated fishing every year. To improve regulation and restock the lakes, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni ordered the deployment of FPU personnel on the lakes in 2017.
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