Abstract:
Lake Kyoga was closed to fishing for a period of over a year, from May 2019 to July 2020.This measure was taken after observing a consistent reduction in catches per unit of effort, and the aim was to recover the declining commercial fish stocks. The lack of information on how the fish stocks responded to this closure and how the fishers adapted to closing of the lake from fishing led to the need for this study in order to investigate the effect of closed season on commercial fisheries and people’s livelihood around Lake Kyoga. The objectives of the study were to examine the perceptions of fishers on closed seasons, to analyze the catches and catch rates before and after the closure, and to assess adaptation strategies of fishers around Lake Kyoga during the closed season.
A case study research design with an appropriate randomization procedure was used to interview the respondents on fish species caught, fishing gears used and their perceptions to closed season so as to find out how helpful the closure is to the fishery and entire fishing community. The study found out that the fishers were not aware of the closed season as a fisheries management tool, and they were not involved in decision making for the duration of the closure. Results indicated that the most caught fish species in Lake Kyoga is Nile tilapia. The commonly used fishing gear was found to be gillnet since it is used for both Nile tilapia and Nile perch. The Lampala net used for Mukene fishery was found to be of 0.8 mm mesh size, while hooks of size number less than 11 were found to be in use for mainly Nile perch. Findings indicated that fishers perceived closed season as a method of fisheries resource sustainability by observable increase in commercial fish stocks during the closure. It was also found out that fishers responded to closed season by joining Agriculture, trade and employment as alternative sources of livelihood. Therefore, the study concludes that there is a significant difference in catches and catch rates before and during the seasonal closure of Lake Kyoga but this reduces with increasing duration of fishing after the closed season.
