Species on the brink of extinction as EAC fails to control illegal fishing
A fisherman with his catch. Europe is the leading market for Nile Perch fish fillets. PHOTO | FILE
Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, the three countries that share Lake Victoria, have frustrated a regional initiative to save Nile perch in the world’s second largest freshwater body.
The EAC Council of Ministers in 2009 launched a $1.8 million drive dubbed Operation Save the Nile Perch (OSNP) to recover the species’ population, which has been depleted from 1.2 million tonnes in the early 2000s to a mere 3,000 tonnes today.
