Govt destroys illegal fishing gear worth Shs500m

At least 6,700 pieces of illegal fishing gear worth millions of shillings have been destroyed as Ugandan authorities step up the fight against illegal fishing activities across Uganda’s water bodies.

“We are destroying illegal fishing gears including undersized gill nets, fishhooks, monofilament lines and nets that were impounded from areas in Jinja, Namayingo and Kampala. They are very destructive to the aquatic environment since the catchability of the nets is very high,” Agriculture ministry fisheries inspector Innocent Mugabi told Monitor on October 21.

While destroying the items at Bugonga landing site in Entebbe, Mr Mugabi estimated the fishing gear to cost Shs500million.

“Once they are impounded, we always parade them before court for advice on what to do. Court advised us to destroy these particular nets,” he said.

The UPDF Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) Wakiso sector Commander Maj Christopher Katembeya denounced illegal fishing gear as the leading cause of inadequate fish in Uganda.

“Unfortunately, most of the stores we raid, we fail to capture the suspects since they run away when they hear that there are people looking for them. Our operations are ongoing and we are trailing some,” he informed journalists.

The Chief Magistrate of Utilities and Wildlife Court at Buganda Road, Gladys Kamasanyu noted that cases involving illegal fishing activities are increasing in the courts of law on a daily.

“Those in charge of law enforcement and protecting fish are able to do their work, have the cases registered in court and they are expedited as a priority which never used to happen before,” she observed.

Ms Kamasanyu said urged increased mass sensitization on the dangers of using illegal fishing gear towards the aquatic environment.

“If we do that, we will have helped to solve the problem of immature fish that are killed through those illegal activities,” she said.