Browsing: Fishing in Tanzania

• In May, Tanzania took a bold but risky step by banning fishing on Lake Tanganyika for three months.
• In the Lake Victoria fishing zone, a new challenge, the smuggling of fish maws, is denying the government revenues.
• Statistics show that Tanzania is also experiencing reduced volumes of Nile Perch caught in Lake Victoria.

Tanzania’s water bodies alone hold plenty of economic activity potential, including the opportunity to harness the country’s billion-dollar fishing industry.

Records from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries show that the industry employs nearly 200,000 people directly. Another 4.5 million individuals benefit from the fishing industry’s value chain in Tanzania.

Tanzania’s fishing industry share of GDP

Tanzania’s fisheries contributed 1.8 per cent to the GDP last year and expanded by at least 2.5 per cent. The sector, despite displaying plenty of potential for creating jobs and powering the economy is facing a myriad of challenges. From Tanzania’s …

Nonetheless, production remains very low, and this is true for most other parts of the continent as well. Even though Africa has some of the world’s largest water bodies and is surrounded by the Atlantic on the West and the Indian Ocean on the East, the Mediterranean Sea in the North and the merging of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to the South, the continent contributes only a small percentage of the global fish supply. 

Tanzania is looking to change this fact. Following a presidential order to boost fish production, the country is embarking on a gigantic project to harvest 12 tonnes of fish per month.  Undertaken by the country’s National Service (military branch) the project is expected to also produce more than 200,000 fish seeds.…