An old English adage goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Swaleh Ramadhan, a fisherman in Mombasa, relates well with this old adage.
“You see, if the government does not give us modern fishing equipment that allows us to go into the deep seas, then we shall be living on handouts from politicians,” he says.
November 24 last year marked an important day for the Mombasa fishing community after a locally assembled 10-tonne deep-sea vessel, MV Mombasa 001, was launched.
Ramadhan and seven other local youth were given an opportunity to manage the Sh15 million deep-sea vessel, which was funded by the Mombasa government and the Kenya Commercial Bank Foundation.
HIGHER EARNINGS
Ramadhan, a fisherman with over 10 years’ experience, says the vessel has increased their earnings as it has enabled them to navigate the deep waters.
“Initially we used small boats, which could not go far into the deep waters. Our catch was very minimal and the furthest we could go is Ukunda in Kwale waters. Now we go up to the waters along the Kenya-Tanzania border,” he explains.
Until December last year, Ramadhan was just an artisanal fisherman, who could only come back with less than a kilo of fish after a night out in the Indian Ocean.
“We just went out into the sea because of passion and lack of formal employment. We could not harvest more than 10kg of fish, but right now we come back with at least 1 tonne after a deep-sea excursion,” says the captain, who looks frail after many years of struggling to make ends meet.
Last Sunday, the fishermen brought 986kg after a three-day deep-sea fishing along the Malindi waters and the Kenya-Tanzania border along the Pemba waters.
Some 667kg of the haul comprised broadbill swordfish and 319kg was tuna, Ramadhan says, adding that it was the biggest catch since they started their deep-sea expeditions.
Since the launch of MV 001, Ramadhan and his crew have made eight successful trips to the deep seas along the 200 nautical miles of the Kenyan Indian Ocean.
The crew has caught over 6,117kg of fish since their first deep-sea excursion in January.
Out of the eight trips made into the deep sea, three were meant for trial to check on the capability of the vessel to sail against the strong waves of the Indian Ocean, Fishing executive Anthony Njaramba says.
“It has so far gone for five deep-sea excursions and the harvest has really been encouraging,” he says.
The county government of Mombasa is targeting to have 14 such deep-sea vessels spread across all six subcounties.
“We have already kick-started the construction of the second boat. The design is complete and we are expecting to launch it by August or September,” Njaramba sats.
Governor Hassan Joho says the boat project is anchored on County Vision 2035, which was launched in April last 2016.
“Before this, our fishermen have been depending on dug-out canoes, which are so limiting. The 10-tonne capacity fishing boat is ready to sail in the deep sea and exploit the blue economy that will further build the financial capacity for our people,” Joho said during the launch.
It has a capacity of eight crew members and can venture into the deep waters within the 200 nautical miles of Kenyan coastline, which stretches from Kiunga in the north to Lunga Lunga in the south.
This stretch in the Indian Ocean coastline has a potential of making the country one of the biggest fish producers.
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL
Kenya is losing an estimated Sh10 billion annually due to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in its territorial waters, according to the government.
According to the government, the Kenya Indian Ocean produces only 5 per cent of the 174,000 metric toners of the fish produced in the country.
Kenya coastline has a potential of producing Sh200 billion fish products, but local fishermen have not been able to fully exploit the blue-economy, Njaramba says.
In the Word, China is the world supplier of fish product with a net worth of Sh14.1 trillion, followed by Vietnam (Sh580 billion), USA Sh 510 billion), and India (Sh460 billion) annually.
Njaramba says Kenya has a potential of being in the same league with China, Indonesia, Chile and Vietnam, who are among the biggest fish product suppliers of the world.
Mercy Mghanga, the vice chairperson of the Mombasa Beach Management Unit, said the boat has improved the fishing industry since the launch of MV 001.
She says the only challenge left now is to increase storage capacity for the fish to supply a bigger market and promote employment.
“We want the storage capacity to be increased to supply a bigger market,” she says.
Njaramba says the county has already identified eight places where they will build storage facilities for local fishermen.
“The eight places are fish landing sites. We will build storage facilities for our fishermen to store their products,” he says.