One of the locally made vessels used by fishermen at the Indian Ocean. [Photo/ the-star.co.ke]
Kenya’s harvest from marine fisheries dropped by 10.6 per cent in 2016 as insufficient investment in deep sea fishing gear dealt a blow to fishing in the Indian Ocean.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows marine fish production declined from 8,500 tonnes in 2015 to 7,600 tonnes last year.
“The decline is attributed to inadequate capacity to effectively utilise the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ),” KNBS said in the recently released Kenya Economic Survey Report.
Under the EEZ arrangement, Kenyan fishermen are allowed to fish up to 200 nautical miles into the Indian Ocean. They, however, operate at below five nautical miles as a result of lack of appropriate fishing gear. This leaves room for illegal fishermen who rake in more than Sh10 billion from Kenyan waters every year.
The county has been incurring losses resulting from illegal marine fishing forcing the government to buy a Sh3.6 billion patrol ship with the ability to detect illegal movement of fishing vessels in Kenyan territorial waters.
The county government of Mombasa also last year bought a new vessel that can spend close to one month in the deep waters harvesting fish.
The investment initiated by Governor Hassan Joho is set to boost marine fish harvests and improve local as well as oversees fish supplies.