Assessing the relevance of traditional fishing gears on fisheries production, case study of river Nile in Namasagali, Uganda.

Abstract

This study was conducted on three landing sites on communities surrounding River Nile in Namasagali sub-county Kamuli district. The purpose of the study was to assess the relevance of traditional fishing gears on fisheries production on the water of River Nile. The specific objectives were to determine the different traditional fishing gears used in Namasagali and its impacts on the fisheries, to determine the fisheries production levels in relation to the fishing gears on the fishery of Namasagali and finally to assess the impacts of traditional fishing gears on fishery in Namasagali. The data was collected from three landing sites that are Nsagabirye, Kabeto, and Kalama on the upper Victoria stretch using interview method with the help of questionnaire as a tool. The data was analysed using Excel software mainly and data was presented by use of descriptive means like tables, pie charts, and column bar graphs. The results revealed that the biggest percentages of people involved in fishing were male (85%) who were involved majorly in the use of traditional fishing gears. Most of the fishermen are aged between 19 to 25 years (41.67%) and most stopped in secondary level (53.33%) and the marital status showed that most respondents were married (56.67%). The study revealed that fishing was on a daily basis (59.01%), majorly for sale (86.36%). There are majorly three types of gears used in the landing sites of Namasagali that is gill nets (64%), baskets (21%), and hooks (15%). The 13 average catch was always between 11 to 20 fish (32.79%). The average income of the respondent was majorly between 41,000 to 60,000 shillings (38.48%), the benefits that have been gained from fishing included buying land (46.74%), livestock purchase (15. 21%).the study revealed that, fish species caught included Nile tilapia (50.46%), Nile perch (34.86%), cat fish (10.09%) and mud fish (4.59%), and the gears used are gill nets (57.47%), hooks (24.14%), and baskets (18.39%), 75% of the fishermen said traditional fishing gears have no impact on the fisheries production but for those who said it have impacts, they said traditional fishing gears majorly injure fish (50%). 63.33% said that there has been a reduction in a reduction in fish harvest they gave the following reasons; too many fishermen/over fishing/poor fishing methods are the main cause of reduction in harvest (56.52%), increase in the water level (41.3%) and weeds (2.17%). The study revealed that, reducing the number of fishermen/ avoid over fishing (34.21), control of siltation/erosion (31.58%) and use of legal gears (26.32%) can reduce on low harvest. The study recommended that future research should address the willingness of fishermen to adjust to the use of legally recommended fishing gears. Another area should address how fishermen are willing to change from capture fishery to aquaculture as a source of income.