Online Reporter
Edgar Vhera
The Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) has extended to May 31 the temporary reduction in allowable minimum fishing depth in Kariba from 20 to 17 metres following reports of insignificant changes in kapenta catches.
ZimParks had initially meant the reprieve measure to run from November last year to February this year after noting a reduction in water levels in the lake due to the El Nino-induced drought.
In a notice to kapenta operators on Lake Kariba recently, ZimParks director general, Professor Edison Gandiwa said Government was acting to alleviate fishermen’s plight of low catches caused by declining water levels.
“ZimParks has been proactively conducting assessments on lake levels and has noted that while Lake Kariba level is improving the change has not been significant enough to necessitate the normalisation of kapenta fishing conditions.
“Consequently, the authority has decided to extend the implementation of the temporary measures for the Kapenta Fishery of Lake Kariba that were first introduced through the October 2024 correspondence,” he said.
Prof Gandiwa disclosed that during the extension period the minimum allowable depth would be maintained at 17 metres and his organisation would also continue monitoring catch quality (size of kapenta caught) from the industry.
“Fishers from Basin 1 (Mlibizi) and 2 (Binga) are allowed to fish in Basin 3 (Sengwa) waters up to May 31, 2025. However, this extended intervention shall not allow Basin 3 fishers to fish in Basins 1 and 2,” he warned.
The temporary variations in minimum fishing depth for kapenta fishing is an adaptive measure to reduced fishing grounds due to drought-induced low lake levels.
A group representing kapenta fishers, Zimbabwe Kapenta Producers Association (ZKPA), said though they were happy with the extension, the directive barring Basin 3 fishers from fishing basins 1 and 2 was disadvantaging the concerned parties.
“Basin 3 fishers are deprived in that when catches start to improve, the free moving Basin 1 and 2 fishers come and crowd the few deep areas causing overfishing in such locations and causing the subsequent low harvests.
“We call upon ZimParks to allow basin sharing for basins 1,2 and 3 permit holders,” ZKPA vice chairman Mr Bernard Munsaka said.
Statistics show kapenta catches have plummeted from 30 000 tonnes in the 1990s to just 5 175 tonnes in 2023, an 83 percent drop.
More recent data from the 2024 Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Department (FARD) annual report shows a steady decline over the past four years: from 5 950 tonnes in the 2020/21 to 5 333 tonnes in 2021/22, then to 5 231 tonnes in 2022/23, and finally to 5 175 tonnes in the 2023/24 season due to overfishing.
ZKPA chairperson, Mr Chatwell Tanga said the lake was overwhelmed with over 1 800 fishing rigs, far exceeding the recommended 500 for both Zimbabwe and Zambia.
A protocol for the economic and technical co-operation between Zimbabwe and Zambia concerning the management and development of fisheries on Lake Kariba that gives fishing effort entitlement in Lake Kariba on the basis of the proportion of the surface area of the lake allocated to each of the riparian countries with 55 percent for Zimbabwe and 45 percent for Zambia has since been adopted.
A 2018 survey conducted in Lake Kariba showed that Zambia had over 60 percent fishing effort with Zimbabwe on 40. This follows from the realisation that by 2017 Zimbabwe had issued 539 licences while an aerial survey of the Zambian waters in 2011 indicated close to 1 000 boats in the water.
