CIFA Occasional Paper No. 16

CIFA Occasional Paper No. 16
CIFA/OP16

MODELS FOR ESTIMATING POTENTIAL FISH YIELDS OF AFRICAN INLAND WATERS

by

Ruud C.M. Crul
Fisheries and Aquaculture Unit
International Agricultural Centre
Wageningen, The Netherlands

FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome 1992

TABLE OF CONTENTS
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT

This document is the result of a study to update existing yield models for African inland waters using information of the Source Book for the Inland Fishery Resources of Africa (SIFRA). The study is part of a broader activity to estimate inland water fishery potential in Africa.

Crul, R.C.M.
Models for estimating potential fish yields of African inland waters.
CIFA Occasional Paper. No. 16. Rome, FAO. 1992. 22p.
ABSTRACT
With the publication of the Source Book for the Inland Fishery Resources of Africa (SIFRA) information on more than 900 inland waters of Africa became available. As information on fisheries under varying exploitation is limited for a large number of African waters, a useful approach to assess potential fish yields of these waters is through comparative studies of similar fisheries for which information is available.
An attempt was made to update existing yield models on African waters. Analysis of SIFRA clearly revealed a lack of data on morphometric and edaphic characteristics for most African inland waters.
Models described in this paper for lakes, reservoirs, rivers and floodplains are based on a single morphometric characteristic. Although the reliability of these models is limited, a first estimate of the potential fish yield can be made.
As long as data on catch and effort are unreliable and morphometric and limnological data are limited for most African inland waters, improvement of the models will be difficult.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.     INTRODUCTION

2.     ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION IN DIFRA

3.     YIELD MODELS FOR LAKES AND RESERVOIRS

3.1        Existing yield models
3.2        Methods
3.2.1     Development of yield models
3.2.2     Data selection and analysis
3.3        Results
3.4        Discussion

4.     YIELD MODELS FOR RIVERS AND FLOODPLAINS

4.1        Existing models
4.2        Data analysis and conventions
4.3        Results and discussion

5.     CONCLUSIONS

6.     ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

7.     REFERENCES

8.     FIGURES

9.     TABLES

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