Amazing aquaculture

Just two years ago, Ben Okuta and other
fishermen were disappointed by the dwindling fish
stocks in Lake Victoria, but they found a new way
of earning a living.

The fishermen have started to practise floating
cage aquaculture. With the help of the Kenya
Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (Kemfri),
the fishermen have built floating cage ponds that
they have placed in Lake Victoria.

floating cage aquaculture

They can now relax at home and still generate enough revenue
for their families from the venture.

“We have 31 cages which we use as ponds to
breed fish. We have installed them at the Dunga
Beach, where we keep monitoring them,” said Mr
Okuta.

He said that each of the pond, which measures 2.5
metres square, is used to breed 1,600 fish, which
take between five and six months before
harvesting.

“Each fish goes for Sh120, which earns us, a total
of Sh130,000 per cage,” said Mr Okuta.
The project began two years ago, when a Ugandan
farmer who had his own fish cages at the Swan
Farm in Jinja shared the idea with the former
fishermen at the Dunga Beach.

“He was sharing the Ugandan experience of the
water hyacinth and said that he was in a group of
farmers who had started floating cages aquaculture
as a way of adapting to the changing lake
environment,” said Mr Okuta.

On learning about the practice, the fishermen at
the beach formed a group that later invited the
Ugandan farmer to help them build the cages.

“He then held a series of meetings to teach us
how to breed the fish in the cages and a few
safety precautions,” he said. “Each cage has the
capacity to breed 2,000 fish, but we chose to
breed 1,600 to give them ample space.”

The cages are made from metals that are placed
together and held afloat using empty jerrycans. The
‘walls’ of the submerged fish ponds are made from
nets which are tied to the metal bars.

After the cages have been assembled together,
they are anchored to the beach so that they
cannot be swept away by the waves in the lake.

“We get the fingerlings from different places but
most frequently from Sagana fish farm, Dominion
farm and from the Lake Basin Development
Authority” Dunga Fisher Cooperative Society
secretary Maurice Ongowe said.

He said that the group specifically breeds the tilapia
nilotica and the tilapia exlentus (which is white in
colour). Fingerlings for the two are given to the
farmers by Kemfri for free.

“Initially we mixed males and females in the same
cage but we realised that the males were smaller
in size when they were harvested, so we decided
to only breed females” Mr Ongowe said.

The farmers sell their fish to several hotels in the
lakeside city, depending on their demand. “We never
lack market and we harvest them when they are
just 500 grammes or plate size, because the hotels
prefer the size,” he said.

This form of fish farming, according to Mr Ongowe,
is good since the fish is kept in a clean environment.
“It is not like the aquaculture that is done on land,
where the water is not fresh because of the feed
and lack of an outlet for the water.

The fish in this
setting can also feed from the lake like the other
fish,” Mr Ongowe said.

“The fish is fed with food pellet that are
recommended by Kemfri who also use them for
their research on diseases, growth and behaviour.”

The farmers only harvest the fish depending on the
number that has been ordered. They also give the
clients a chance to choose which fish they want
because the cages are portable.

The existence of the hyacinth in the lake is the
biggest challenge to the farmers, who say that
despite the cages being anchored to the beach,
they’re sometimes swept and destroyed by the
dense cover of the aquatic weed. Even though not
often, some fingerlings also die during transportation
to Dunga.

“We have not experienced theft because we have
employed someone to watch over them at night,”
Mr Ongowe said. The farmers together with other
fishermen formed the Dunga Fisher Co-operative
Society where they invest in shares, lend and
borrow for a at a 10 per cent interest.

Other than the revenue the farmers earn from the
cage fish farming, they receive tourists who pay
Sh500 per boat for educational trips to the cages,
which are just about 100 metres from the beach.

“Every year, each member earns a dividend,
depending on the shares they have invested in the
society,” said the co-operative’s official.

Source; scherono@ke.nationmedia.com

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