- Illegal fishermen prefer the monofilament nets.
- Number of illegal fishermen in the lake on the rise.
Monofilament nets are killing millions of fingerlings every month and should be banned to save the fisheries sector, the Agriculture ministry has said.
The ministry wants the Kenya Bureau of Standards to ban the importation of the nets saying they pose the biggest threat to the industry.
The call came from Agriculture Chief Administrative Secretary Linah Kilimo who spoke in Naivasha on Monday after witnessing the burning of nets worth over Sh8 million that had been confiscated from illegal fishermen in Lake Naivasha.
The Nakuru county government last year promised to introduce a bill in the county assembly that would bar the sale and use of the nets in the county.
Kilimo said the use of the monofilament nets in inland water bodies was on the rise.
“Lake Naivasha is one of the water bodies that have been adversely affected by use of these nets and this has a negative impact on fish production,” she said.
The CAS admitted that the only solution lay in banning the entry of the nets into the country. She said the ministry would liaise with Kebs on the matter.
“The nets are very harmful to water bodies as they sweep everything from mature fish to fingerlings thus eroding gains made in restocking,” Kilimo said.
She said the government was keen on fully implementing the Fisheries Management Act, 2016.
“The government is committed to fighting unregulated and illegal fishing in all our water bodies and we shall be using the Kenya Coast Guards to enforce this,” she said.
Nakuru CEC for Agriculture Immaculate Maina admitted that undersize nets were a challenge to the fisheries sector.
Maina said they they were keen on banning the use and sale of the lethal nets as one way of saving the sector that earned the county Sh300 million in the last financial year.
“Fishing will only be allowed between 6am and 6pm and 100m away from the shoreline while anyone dealing in the sale of fishing gear will have to be licensed by the county government,” she said.
The executive said the process of formulating a legal framework on hook and line fishing was underway. Hook and line fishing has also become rampant.
“Sport fishing license will only be valid for one month and will be subject to some conditions while eco-tourism boats will not be licensed to fish,” she said.