By
J.O. Okaronon1, S. Nkusi2, E.J. Coenen3 & J. Ikwaput4
2 Regional Fisheries Officer, Victoria East, Fisheries Department, P.O. Box 4, Entebbe, Uganda.
3 CTA, FISHIN Project UGA/87/007, c/o FAO, P.O. Box 521, Kampala, Uganda.
1. INTRODUCTION
There is a considerable demand for reliable and up-to-date fisheries statistics and information for fisheries planning, management and development by governmental agencies. This is indeed the need of many developing countries.
Although some of these countries have made substantial progress during the past few decades in the improvement of fisheries information, data and statistics, the majority still experience difficulties. These arise from the lack of financial means and sometimes expertise in the collection, compilation, analysis and computerisation of information and statistics and the lack of infrastructure and/or adequate institutional arrangements for supporting long-term, self-sustaining fisheries information and statistical programmes.
As a result of these deficiencies, the statistics being collected in many CIFA (Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa) countries have been grossly inaccurate and inadequate for rational planning of fisheries development and management programmes. This therefore calls for primary emphasis to be given to statistics of fish catches and landings and the need for improved data on fishing effort and on socio-economic aspects of the fisheries, not only at national but also at regional and subregional level. For common fisheries resources, data should be collected and analysed under the same conditions for all countries (FAO, 1986, 1989a, 1989b, 1989c).
2. STATISTICAL ITEMS/VARIABLES TO BE COLLECTED AND DEFINITION OF TERMS
In the Ugandan part of Lake Victoria, the collection of catch/effort data is carried out on a number of fish landings based on a sample basis. The collection of data regarding various items/variables include: fish numbers per species, total weight per species, and values obtained at the beach together with information on the number of boats present at the beach, number of fishermen and at times gears used and their specifications.
Some terms commonly used in fisheries statistics and their definitions include:
Catch: Catch is the amount of fish caught in terms of weight. Catch may be divided into two types:-
“Nominal Catch” which is the landed live weights.
“Gross Catch” which is the total weight caught, including nominal catch and discards at all levels.
For our case, catch refers to the “nominal catch”.
Fishing Effort: Fishing effort is “the amount of time, money, labour, technology and skill applied to catching fish”. For our case, the fishing effort unit refers to the “effort” put in by 1 fishing boat during 1 fishing day.
Catch Per Unit of Effort (CPUE): CPUE is the amount of fish landed, expressed as nominal catch, per fishing unit per day.
Fisherman: A fisherman is a person who engages in the actual operation of capture or culture of aquatic resources. Therefore, family members or others who assist in the work relating to the fishing operation such as unloading fish, net preparing, processing, etc., who do not participate in fishing operations are not considered as fishermen (Bazigos, 1974).
In Uganda, the people we always refer to as the fishing boat crew are the actual fishermen.
Boat owner: A boat owner is a person to whom the boat belongs. He/she can either be a fisherman or an absentee boat owner, not involved in the actual fishing operation itself.
Fish Landing: A fish landing is a place (beach) where fresh catch is landed. “Landings” is sometimes wrongly used to refer to the daily catches landed.
Resting Place: A resting place is a place along the shore where fishermen take their boats to moor and to prepare their nets after landing/selling off their catch at the fish landing.
3. BRIEF HISTORICAL REVIEW
The actual collection of catch statistics for Lake Victoria started in 1933 (Mann, 1969). But useful collection of statistics for Lake Victoria only begun after the creation of the Lake Victoria Fisheries Service (LVFS) in 1947 (Beauchamp, 1955). From 1947–1960, the LVFS of the East African High Commission was responsible for the collection of statistics for the whole of Lake Victoria. LVFS and the East African Fisheries Research Organisation (EAFRO) worked hand in hand to combine both administration and research (EAFRO, 1958).
The Annual Report of the LVFS in 1950 is the first to mention a brief description of the fisheries statistical data collection system which the service implemented in 1950 for Lake Victoria. It consisted of a day-to-day recording of the various net catches on certain definite beaches around the lake. For Uganda, the same report states that “it has been more difficult to train the staff in Uganda as they had previously been trained in other methods”. Unfortunately, no descriptions have been found relating to these previous “other methods”. The Uganda Fisheries Department (UFD) created in 1961, eventually became the sole agency responsible for the collection of fisheries statistics in Uganda. The collection of fisheries statistics was severely disrupted during the seventies and early eighties due to the civil strife that struck Uganda.
In the past, UFFRO, formerly EAFFRO (East African Freshwater Fisheries Research Organisation, up to 1977) and before that EAFRO (up to 1967), was not involved in catch-effort data collection as it relied much on the Uganda Fisheries Department (UFD) catch statistics and Jinja Municipal Council fish catch records from Masese fish landing.
However, in 1972, UFFRO assisted in an occasional (3 months) Catch Assessment Survey (CAS) for Lake Victoria (Wetherall, 1972), based on earlier frame survey results and inclusive of a stratification of the lake shore into limnological zones. And during January - March 1989, UFFRO and the EEC Artisanal Fisheries Rehabilitation Project (AFRP) carried out a joint fisheries survey of Uganda waters involving catch assessment (Okaronon and Kamanyi, 1989) among other aspects, based on the 1988 frame survey results from the Planning Unit of the Ministry of Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAIF, 1989).
Since 1987, however, UFFRO has staff permanently stationed at Masese fish landing collecting catch-effort data.
4. PRESENT DATA COLLECTION STATUS
4.1 Uganda Fisheries Department (UFD)
For Lake Victoria, Fisheries Department has Regional and District Fisheries Offices located in Tororo, Iganga, Jinja, Masaka, Kalangala and Mpigi Districts. The collection of fisheries data is carried out by fisheries officers from the Uganda Fisheries Department: Fisheries Assistants (FAs) and Assistant Fisheries Development Officers (AFDOs) who are based at the landings or in near-by villages. They are supposed to collect data on a daily basis. However, this is not the case for all landing sites. Where more than one landing is supervised, the officers select at random which landing to work on for a specific day.
The method for collecting data varies from landing to landing based on the size of the landing and the volume of catch normally landed. Where the landing is small and the catch is small too, total enumeration of boats and catch is carried out. When the landing is big and the catch is big too, sampling of the ith boat and catch is adopted. Weights of catches are obtained either by weighing or by estimating based on the average grade sizes of fish. Where a scale is available and the catch is small, all the fish is weighed. If the catch is big, a sample by species is taken, weighed and its average weight multiplied by the total number of fish landed. Where there is no scale, weight is obtained by counting the fish and multiplying this number by the average weight which is normally fixed according to the size of fish and the mesh size based on the experience of the fisheries officer. Where sampling of boats is done, the total catch for the sampled boats is divided by the number of sampled boats and then raised by the total number of fishing boats landing that day. At the end of the month, a time raising factor is applied to obtain an estimate for the whole month (Stoneman, 1969; Ikwaput & Tumwebaze, 1989).
4.2 Uganda Freshwater Fisheries Research Organisation (UFFRO)
Since 1987, UFFRO has two Laboratory Assistants permanently posted at Masese fish landing collecting catch-effort data on a continuous basis in order to obtain more reliable data for UFFRO to monitor the commercial fishery passing through Masese. Data collection is done on Mondays to Fridays and involves all the canoes landing fish. The information is collected on specified forms and includes number of canoes at the landing and how many of these landed fish. For each canoe landing fish, the following records are taken: (1) fishing grounds, (2) type, size and quantity of gear fished, (3) catch by species, number and weight and whether fresh or cured and (4) average unit price (Ug. Shs/kg) for each species where possible.
5. SUBMISSION OF DATA
At the end of each month, the officer in charge of a landing or fishing area compiles his daily returns into one table for each landing using the format designed by Orach-Meza (1988). There are no proper forms in use, although the UGA/87/007 Fishin Project is presently testing 3 different forms in the Lakes Edward and George area.
The monthly data from the landings are submitted to the District or Regional Fisheries Office (DFO/RFO). However, the state of the data submitted is not uniform for all landings. Some officers forward their daily raw data to the RFO/DFO, while some compile it and apply raising factors to give an estimate for the whole month before submission is done. Where compilation is done at the landings, some officers do not indicate whether an attempt is made to estimate for the whole month, for all the boats and all landings administered or whether it is only the total for the samples taken.
At the RFO/DFO, it is the responsibility of the Regional or District Officer to check/edit for any errors and to make the estimate for the landings which submitted only their raw data. The compiled data are then forwarded to the Fisheries Department Headquarters. However, sometimes it is very difficult for the RFO/DFO to detect any errors and to estimate the monthly catch for a particular landing when no indication is made on whether the submitted data are a complete estimate for 30 days or not, on how many days and how many boats were sampled and on how many boats were present at the landing that month. Some RFOs and DFOs do not know the total number, location and magnitude of landings in their areas of jurisdiction and therefore can not make a projected estimate for the unsampled landings in their areas. At the end of the month, the data submitted to Headquarters reflect fish numbers, weights, values and at times boat numbers only (Ikwaput and Tumwebaze, 1989).
6. DATA COMPILATION AND ANALYSIS PROCEDURES
6.1 Procedures at the UFD
At the Fisheries Department Headquarters, the Statistics and Information Unit is responsible for extracting the figures from the monthly RFO and DFO reports. The Unit recompiles the data under a new format, appraising their quality and identifies errors and omissions. Compilation of these figures is done in stages.
First stage involves tabulation of monthly fish catch for each submitted landing showing monthly total weight and value per species and for all species combined. At the end of the year, total yearly estimated catch is made for each sampled landing. These annual estimates are derived from the average monthly weight for the submitted months raised to twelve months.
Second stage involves tabulation of all the sampled landings for a given water body showing annual estimated weight and value per species and for all species combined. These are added up to give the total annual catch for each species for the sampled landings. The total annual catch for all species combined is then raised upward by dividing it by the total number of boats in the sampled landings and multiplying the average boat catch by the total estimated number of boats in the water body to obtain the estimated annual catch for the whole water body. However, it is not always easy to make the estimate for the whole water body because at times the total number of boats is not known and available data from frame surveys is usually very old.
Third stage involves tabulating the total for all the water bodies to give a comparison in total catch between lakes, rivers, ponds, etc. and to derive the total annual estimated catch for the whole of Uganda.
6.2 Procedures at UFFRO
Completed forms on receipt at UFFRO are usually scrutinised by a senior officer for errors, omissions and ambiguous entries before analysis is carried out. Several research officers and assisting personnel undertake the compilation and analysis of these data. However, the analysis work for the data collected since 1987 is still under process.
A comparison between the UFD and UFFRO catch data for Masese landing for 1989 shows that the catch figures recorded by UFFRO are higher than those recorded by UFD by about 20%. The catch-effort data collected by UFFRO from Masese are fairly accurate with respect to total landed catch per species. They are however questionable with respect to catch per unit effort (CPUE) because the canoes landing at Masese are mostly transport canoes. The catch-effort data have been used by several research officers in papers presented at Regional Meetings in Mwanza, Tanzania (Wandera, 1990) and Kisumu, Kenya (Karuhanga, 1990).
7. DATA USERS
UFFRO has been one of the primary users of Fisheries Department catch data. During the pre-1970 period of the Lake Victoria Research Programme, EAFFRO (now UFFRO) was requesting for catch information and this was sent under a specified format. These data were very useful for research purpose until 1974 when the submission of such data stopped.
Other users of these data are mainly the Government of Uganda, some international agencies like FAO, and some private agencies.
8. FACILITIES
8.1 Facilities at the UFD
All the RFOs of Lake Victoria have been and are being equipped with some facilities to improve data collection, compilation and analysis. These are provided under the present UGA/87/007 Project “Rehabilitation of Fisheries Statistics and Information Systems”. Equipment like typewriters, calculators, motor-cycles, etc. were issued to all RFOs of Lake Victoria and also to the RFO of Lakes Edward/George and Kazinga Channel. Arrangements are also being made to provide these offices with boats and engines to facilitate water transport.
Some FAs based at landings have also been issued with bicycles, calculators, clip boards, pens, pencils and weighing scales to simplify the task of data collection.
At the Fisheries Department Headquarters, the Statistical Unit is now equipped with two IBM PS/2, 50 Z computers complete with Epson LQ-1050 printers and several software packages. Besides these, the statisticians have also been provided with pocket computers/calculators to simplify their day-to-day statistical work.
8.2 Facilities at UFFRO
At Masese, use is made of the weighing scale of the Fisheries Department and/or the Jinja Municipal Council Revenue Department. For the analysis of the data collected, the officers make use of portable calculators and the computer facilities available in UFFRO.
9. PERSONNEL
The Fisheries Department is staffed with well trained fisheries officers of different cadres. Within the Lake Victoria region there are 5 RFOs, namely Tororo, Jinja, Lake Victoria East (Entebbe), Masaka and Kalangala (Ssese). Tororo Region has 1 FO (Fisheries Officer), 1 FDO (Fisheries Development Officer), 7 AFDOs, and 14 FAs; Jinja Region has 1 SFO, 1 FO, 9 AFDOs and 15 FAs; Lake Victoria East has 1 SFO, 1 Principal AFDO, 6 AFDOs and 20 FAs; Masaka Region has 6 AFDOs, 21 FAs and 2 Fish Guards; Ssese Region has 1 FO, 3 AFDOs, 2 FAs and 1 Market Assistant. At Fisheries Department Headquarters, there exists a Statistical Unit responsible for the compilation and analysis of the data. The unit is staffed with 1 Senior Biologist/Statistician and 3 Biologists/Statisticians and supervised by the Deputy Commissioner for Fisheries.
10. BOTTLENECKS
The system of data collection is faced with a number of bottlenecks. Due to the nature of the shoreline of Lake Victoria it is not easy to visit some areas by land, mainly because there exist so many minor landings. As such, not all of them can be visited.
Even on the landings where data collection is done, there is no uniform format. Some staff lack the basic facilities such as weighing scales, stationery and calculators to assist in making accurate and reliable estimates. Data collected at some field stations are not complemented with additional information on fishing gear and its characteristics (gear specifications, number of boats, etc.). This creates a problem of data analysis at the District and Regional Offices. Also, these offices, when submitting their data to Headquarters, do not indicate whether it is an estimate for the whole month or just the totals for the sampled days only. Also no attempt is made to estimate the fish catches for the unsampled landings on which the officers may have some knowledge. These short-comings make it difficult to use a defined formula to estimate total annual catches for the Ugandan waters of Lake Victoria.
General lack of adequate transport in all regions makes it difficult to carry out quality checks at the landings. The field staff also experience difficulties visiting most of the landings which are far off from their residence.
Practically, at the landing, fisheries staff face some problems in recording total catches. There is a lot of unrecorded fish because some fishmongers buy fish from the water for smuggling out for better markets and thus the owners of those canoes return to the landing without any fish. Also, during scarcity of fish, fishmongers enter the water and grab fish before the fisheries officers are able to record the catch.
There are taxes levied by the local authorities according to weight landed. Therefore, fishermen try to avoid having their fish sampled by fisheries staff since they are suspicious that this information will be declared to the revenue collectors.
11. RECOMMENDATIONS
A regular frame survey should be carried out on Lake Victoria to determine the number of landings and their sizes in terms of active fishing boats.
A standard form for recording and tabulation of data collected from the field should be developed at national level, to reflect : number of boats, gear specifications for each landing, and number of landings in each region with an indication of both sampled and unsampled ones and the raising factors to apply. It is important that the sampling be done in a pre-conceived and known basis. It must be truly random, and not be susceptible to individual preferences by the sampler. The units used to collect data must be the same throughout any given sampling programme, and preferably throughout the country and for countries sharing a common resource.
There should be a routine system of on-the-spot checks and quality surveys based on the number and time of sampling days.
Catch-effort records for each landing should be recorded on one separate daily CAS form.
Establish an integrated and sustaining system of data and information flow right from the field assistants through the RFO/DFOs to the Headquarters and back.
Regular meetings between UFD and UFFRO should be encouraged to review catch statistics and collection systems. Efforts by the Regional Lake Victoria Fisheries Research Project, the CIFA sub-committee for Lake Victoria and the UNDP/FAO Regional Fisheries Project based in Burundi, should be encouraged to facilitate collaborative efforts at a regional level.
12. REFERENCES CITED
BAZIGOS, G.P., 1974. The design of fisheries statistical surveys: inland waters. FAO Fish. Tech. Pap. (133). Rome: FAO. 122p.
BEAUCHAMP, S.A., 1955. The danger of over-fishing existing stocks of Tilapia, with particular reference to Lake Victoria and Kavirondo Gulf. In EAFRO Annual Report 1954/55, App. “A”:30–34.
EAFRO, 1958. A Note on the Fish Landed at Masese. In East Afr. Fish. Res. Org., Annual Report 1956/1957: 14–15.
FAO, 1986. Strategy for fisheries management and development. Rome: FAO. 26p
FAO, 1989a. Review of the FAO Regional Fishery Bodies and their role in TCDC and EDDC. Committee on Fisheries, Eighteenth Session, 10–14 April 1989. COFI/89/3 (February 1989). Rome: FAO. 17p.
FAO, 1989b. The 1984 World Fisheries Conference. Programmes of action: progress and future Priorities. Committee on Fisheries, Eighteenth Session, 10–14 April 1989. COFI/89/4 (February 1989). Rome: FAO. 18p.
FAO, 1989c. Review of the FAO Regional Fishery Bodies and their role in TCDC and ECDC. Committee of Fisheries, Eighteenth Session, 10–14 April 1989. COFI/98/6 (March 1989). Rome: FAO. 15p.
IKWAPUT, J. and R. TUMWEBAZE, 1989. The present status of data collection and analysis in Uganda. BIOSTAT Working Paper No. 3. FISHIN Notes and Records. Fisheries Statistics and Information Systems, FAO/UNDP Project UGA/87/007.
KARUHANGA, P.N., 1990. The importance of fisheries economics in the understanding of fishery systems. A paper presented at the IFIP Symposium on Socio-economic Aspects of Lake Victoria Fisheries, 25–27 April 1990, Kisumu, Kenya.
LVFS, 1950. Lake Victoria Fisheries Service: Annual Report 1950. East African High Commission. 9 p.
MAIF, 1989. Fisheries Survey, 1988. EEC/AFRP and MAIF Planning Dept., FS890303.DOC: 11. Kampala.
MANN, M.J., 1970. A resume of the evolution of the tilapia fisheries of Lake Victoria up to the year 1960. EAFFRO Annual Report 1969:21–27.
OKARONON, J.O., and J.R. KAMANYI, 1989. Catch assessment survey of Uganda waters. AFRP/UFFRO Joint Fisheries Survey Report No. 2. Kampala: Ministry of Animal Industry and Fisheries, Artisanal Fisheries Rehabilitation Project and Uganda Freshwater Fisheries Research Organisation. (mimeo, September 1989).
ORACH-MEZA, F.L., 1988. Format for Monthly Fisheries Statistical Reports. Departmental leaflet. Entebbe: UFD.
STONEMAN, J., 1969. Fisheries catch statistics in Uganda. In UFD Occ. Pap., No.2: 25–27.
WANDERA, S.B., 1990. The Dagaa fishery of the North-Eastern portion of Lake Victoria. A paper presented to a Workshop on “The Prevailing Activities on the Lake Victoria Basin with particular reference to the Fisheries of the Lake”, 8–10 March 1990, Mwanza, Tanzania.
WETHERALL, J.A., 1972. On the catch assessment survey (CAS) of Lake Victoria. EAFFRO Occasional Paper No. 14. 57p.
