The future of the Nile perch catches and value and its maw :

Abstract

Nile perch is a source of food but most importantly, the maw from it is of great economic importance. This is because its price is almost twice that of the Nile perch fish meat. Despite the economic benefits of the maw, its source, the Nile perch is at great risk of depletion. This possesses a great threat to the fishery economy especially the revenue got from exporting Nile perch maw. This drove the need for a study to be conducted to understand how fish maw size is influenced by size of Nile perch and how the prices (both selling and purchasing) are influenced by Nile perch maw size at Kiyindi Landing site on Lake Victoria. The study comprised of 301 individual Nile Perch fish which were obtained randomly from the fishermen at the Landing site. Two parameters, weight and length, were considered for the study in both the fish and the maw. Weight for individual fish and maws was measured using a weighing scale in (kgs) for the individual fish and (g) for the fish maws while length for individual fish and maws, was measured using a tape measure. The findings of this study revealed a significant positive correlation between fish size and maw size at implying that maw size of Nile perch is directly affected by the fish size (r=.799 and p=.000 for fish and maw length), (r=.831 and p=.000 for fish length and maw weight), (r=.822 and p=.000 for fish weight and maw length), (r=.847 and p=.000 for fish weight and maw weight). Furthermore, a significant positive correlation (r=.828, p=.000) was revealed between maw length and its selling price at α=0.01. The findings of this study will help alleviate the Uganda’s revenue from Nile perch maw exporting thus boosting Uganda’s economy. However, if more efforts to enforce strict laws on fishermen who harvest sexually immature fish are taken into consideration it will greatly improve Uganda’s revenue base from the fishery industry.