Fish stocks continue decreasing in Kariba and surrounding areas due to overfishing, a situation that the government confirms has been happening for quite some time and is made worse by poaching.
Binga North Member of Parliament, Prince Dubeko Sibanda, raised concern over the depleting stocks of fish since communities who live near rivers and dams like the BaTonga survive on fishing.
Despite several fish farming projects throughout the country, Sibanda said fish populations were dwindling and also questioned why government entities responsible for licensing of fishing business continued to raise licence costs when stocks are depleting.
“The government continues to charge fishing businesses the same exorbitant licensing fees instead of responding to the decline in the business,” he said.
It was reported last year, that the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) charges $300 for a three-month fishing licence.
In response, Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Mangaliso Ndlovu acknowledged that indeed fish stock levels were depleting.
“It has been happening for quite some time and the main reason has been overfishing but there is also a need to increase enforcement expenditure, especially from fish poaching,” he said.
To mitigate the situation, Ndlovu said the government had implemented strategies such as “moonlight days” where there are days when fishing is not allowed, which was an agreement between Zimbabwe and its neighbour Zambia, who both share Kariba.
“This has been successfully implemented on the Zimbabwean side to give time for our fish to reproduce. In a month, fishing takes place for around 22 days. We have certain days that we allow for reproduction,” he said.
The minister said the fishing capacity particularly in Kariba for both Zimbabwe and Zambia was to have around 500 fishing boats.
“In fact in total, Zimbabwe has an allocation of around 265 with Zambia around 235 depending on time to time assessments. As we speak, Zambia has more than 1 300 fishing boats in there and Zimbabwe has close to 500. We have been taking measures to restrict issuance of new permits but also to increase the costs so that we are able to meet the compliance cost,” Ndlovu said.
To address poaching, Ndlovu stated that rangers went out almost daily looking for poachers and arresting some.
“For us to be able to protect that resource that is depleting, we need to continue to unlock resources. It is a painful period and I acknowledge especially for fish farming as a business at the moment but our understanding is, if we are able to conserve what is there, restock overtime, we will be able to increase profitability,” he said.
The minister said on the issue of maintaining a high cost of licensing, the fees were associated with compliance where they dealt with poaching.
“Our belief also is that the people in the fishing business will also realise that the depleting stocks are also a result of overfishing and poaching as we have been working with them,” Ndlovu said.
“The institution charged with the mandate of dealing with poaching is National Parks (ZimParks) and the resources they deploy to address poaching come from the fishing licences. That is why we cannot reduce it otherwise it accelerates the rate of depletion.”
Last year, ZimParks confirmed that studies showed depleted fish populations in Lake Kariba, with a lack of rainfall reducing the algae that is at the base of the lake’s food chain.
According to research, fish harvesting has been on a decline since 1989, when a peak of 30 000 tonnes between Zambia and Zimbabwe was realised.
