By Omotayo Edubi
Lake Victoria is ready for a 5 billion shillings fish restocking program, which is a collaboration between Kenya and Hungary.
The program will see the entire lake restocked with Nile perch fingerlings to shore up fishing stocks.
Kenya produces 149 thousand metric tonnes of fish annually against a consumption of 450 thousand metric tonnes.
This according to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics prompted Kenya to import fish worth 1.5 billion shillings in 2020 to bridge the deficit.
The fish deficit is partly blamed on declining stocks in Lake Victoria due to over fishing that has seen stock reduce by 70 percent.
Kenya in partnership with Hungary has started a Nile perch breeding project in Kisumu that will be used as a breeding site for the species to restock Lake Victoria.
In efforts to shore up fishing activities in the country, talks between Kenya and China concerning the suspension of fishing licenses for six Chinese fishing ships are on.
The government has also earmarked cash to settle the 10-month arrears owed to French based Collected Localisation Satellites monitoring firm that checked fishing activities in the Indian ocean.
Kenya loses between 11-26 million tonnes of seafood annually to illegal, and unregulated fishing activities within her territorial waters.
Quality journalism costs money. Today, we’re asking that you support us to do more. Support our work by sending in your donations.
The donation can be made directly into NatureNews Account below
