Recently I was requested by a friend from Dar es Salaam to purchase a bucket of Nile Perch for her. I could not believe how hard it was for me to find nile perche medium size to fill a bucket. I decided to contact Mr. Moses who is a long time fish monger to assist me in acquiring fresh Nile Perche from the fishermen. In vain, he waited two days at the lake shores in a place called Luchelele, luckly on the third day he was able to purchase medum size nile perche that could fill a bucket. Now that was not the end of story, then came the price. The last 3 years, the cost of a full bucket was about Tshs 40,000 to 50,000 so you can imagine how astonished I was  to learn that the cost has shot to Tshs 100,000. Mr. Moses and I spent almost 30 minutes bargaining the price lastly I had to give in because he was adamant. 

I have come across various reports that indicate the declining of Nile Perch in the Lake Victoria. The lake is shared between three countries; Tanzania 51%, Uganda 43% and Kenya 6%. One significant reasons for this predicament is over fishing, over-capitalization and high levels of non-compliance to regulations in fishing. Apart from that, water level in the lake dropped, a situation associated with luck of rainfall consequently resulting to the unfavorable environment for all fish species to thrive including Nile Perch. 

In the East Africa, there has been various interventions done by Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization by the member states that share the lake i.e Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Since 2008, the member states has been trying to reverse the stock decline through a management plan. In the year 2009, the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LVFO) launched its first management phase I from 2009-2014 titled Nile Perch Fishery Management Plan (NPFMPI). One major characteristic of the fishery resources is that it is natural renewable since it is produced by the ecosystem. However, management initiatives of these resources has been difficult to implement since it is publicly-owned henceforth anybody can access the fishery. The Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization went further to introduce the Nile Perch Fishery Management Plan phase II (2015-2019). 

It has been documented that in the past two decades, the fishing industries within the member states was registering 250,000 tonnes per year which was in turn contributing USD 222 million in terms of turnover and USD 158 million in terms of wealth (value added) generated by the Nile Perch fishery to the economies. However the nile perch is expected to decrease from 250 000 to 200 000 tonnes per year for the next five years to come. 

The decline of Nile Perch has had a huge social-economic impact to the local people. The Nile Perch has become expensive commodity and many fishermen have been jailed for lack of compliance to regulations. These regulations range from failure to utilize the correct fishing gears proposed by the players in the fishing industry such as the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization in their Nile Perch Fishery Management Plan both phase I and II. Also those caught fishing during bans that are usually announced and the fishing ban can be up-to 6 months. Those that depend on fishing as their only economic activity find it difficult to comply with the regulations bringing about hostility between the local people and the marine police. 

The Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization strongly believe that if the fishermen and fish processors in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda observe the so called "6-months annual fishing holidays" or bans in other words it will increase the number of nile perch in Lake Victoria since the species has a very high breeding ability of up to 20 millions eggs per day with the chances of 80% of them being hatched.