Are fish stocks really dwindling?

Marcel Kroese, a researcher with the European Union Smartfish programme, told The Nation two months ago that Malawi has over the past two decades lost 93 percent of its fish production. “Between 1990 and 2010, Malawi had over 30 tonnes of fish and now the country has less than two tonnes,” he said. His overriding wisdom is that fish stocks in the lake are dwindling at a worrisome rate. This, arguably, is bad news not just for local fishers like Jussab. It is bad news even to commercial fishing companies such as Maldeco Fisheries, a subsidiary of Press Corporation Limited (PCL) which, in the 20 years of its operations, has helped solve the problem of unemployment in the country. The company, which employs over 200 people, is the largest commercial fishing and processing company in Malawi and thus the largest single supplier of fish in Malawi.

However, despite reports of dwindling fish stocks, the Department of Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, argues that the drop in fish stocks is marginal, adding that the severity of the problem has been grossly over-exaggerated. The question, then, is: What really is happening to the fish stocks in Lake Malawi? It is important, in the first place, to understand that Lake Malawi—covering 120 000 square kilometres, representing about 20 percent of the country’s total surface area—has between 500 and 1 000 species of fish. According to Dr Steve Donda, deputy director of Fisheries Department in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, of all the species in Lake Malawi, only a few are caught. “The most caught species include chambo, utaka, kampango, bombe and usipa,” he says. And research shows that most of the species that are caught by fishers are shallow-water species. These fish species are exploited by both small-scale and large-scale fisheries. “In recent years,” says Donda, “fish catches from all water bodies have been fluctuating between 60 000 tonnes per year to 7 000 tonnes per year.” He adds: “The production is relatively lower when we consider the findings on fish stock assessment studies which reveal a potential for further 41 694 tonnes of fish to be caught annually from Lake Malawi alone in addition to the current landings.” The explanation for fishers not being able to tap the said potential and instead localise their efforts near the shores, argues Donda, is due to lack of resources to expand their activities further inside the lake. Most of the fishers without resources to “expand their activities further inside the lake” are small scale fishers such as Jussab.

These are fishers who use traditional fishing gears such as beach seines, open water seines, long lines, hand lines and fish traps. On the other hand, large-scale fishers such as Maldeco use mechanised fishing methods, using both stern and pair trawlers, and are confined to the southern part of Lake Malawi. Thus, it is generally small-scale fishers who are a challenge to shallow water species across the country.

As argued by Andrew Saukani, a fishing researcher, small-scale fishers do not just pose a threat to shallow water species because their rising population leads to overfishing, but they generally do not follow regulations. “Most of these fishers do not respect fish bans or regulations which require them to return to the water any fish that is less than 15cm long which is caught unintentionally. They also insist on using fishing nets with very small meshes, contrary to national fisheries management regulations,” says Saukani. This is why, Geoffrey Kanyerere, officer-in-charge at Monkey Bay Fisheries Research Station, argues that the drop in fish stocks in Lake Malawi depends on fish species. “There has been a drastic reduction in shallow-water fish species, especially chambo; this is undisputable.

And because of increased number of small-scale fishers on the lake, there has been a reduction in the number of catches per fisher but overall, there has been an increase in fish catches,” he says. For instance, data from the Fisheries Department shows that the annual fish catch by small-scale fishers has increased from 32 038 tonnes in 2002 to 106 769 tonnes in 2012. In terms of catch composition by fish species, the 2012 catch shows usipa leading by 70 percent; seconded by utaka, kambuzi, mbaba and mlamba at three percent; with chambo, makumba and matemba on the fringe at two percent.