Leonida OwagaWashington Otieno Osonde aka Jalupo engineer dropped out of Maisnde Muliro University to become a fisherman in Kisumu like his father. Here is how he says he would fix the decline of fish catch in Lake Nyanza.
Mr Osonde says he would identify Beach Management Units on the about 20 beaches around the area and get people in groups. For every group give them a fund to build fish cages which they could rear fish along the shores while allowing the free ranging fish to breed.
These groups would also double up as patrol to enforce the moratorium on fishing during the breeding months while also ensuring that the right net sizes were being used to avoid catching immature fish. He says this would be a better way of enforcement than the government which takes a bribe of free catch and lets rouge fishermen off the hook.
He says a cage with 20 thousand fingerlings could earn the groups up to 18000 fish of 300 each. These could be sold off the shores of the lake by the beach that would cut out the brokers and create wealth for the fishermen, fishmongers and the industry of making boats, sails and nets that would emerge around them.
“Right now you see someone catching a small fish which you will sell for twenty shillings. If only they allowed to grow to its full potential they can get to 5 or ten kilos and can make you up to 350 shillings per kilo. But right now it is hard to see that when everybody is joining in destroying the lake,” he said.
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