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Marine creatures threatened by trawlers
By Daniel Nyassy
18th April 2003
East African Standard
Sea turtles and prawns are facing a serious threat from trawlers fishing in the Kenyan waters, a top scientist has said.
Dr Nyawira Muthiga, who is the head of Coast Wetlands Programme at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), says proper protection mechanisms are necessary to save the endangered marine creatures.
Apart from destroying turtle eggs and breeding corals, trawlers catch dugongs and over fish prawns.
She called for the harmonisation of certain laws concerning the KWS and the Fisheries Department so as to set up better monitoring and protective mechanism over the sea creatures.
Enforcing the use of the Turtle Excluded Devices (TED) by trawlers, for example, would greatly reduce the risk of fishing out turtles.
Nyawira, who is a specialist marine scientist, said the trawlers also destroy local fishermen's nets and dilapidated fish stocks within Kenya's two nautical miles.
"And the worst part is that the trawlers dispose off about 70 per cent of their fish catch which is a big waste," she said.
Nyawira said there is lack of adequate scientific information about the marine field in the country making it hard to implement certain programmes.
However, Nyawira said the trawling problem in the country is still a minimum compared to what is happening in neighbouring countries.
Whereas there are about four trawlers within the Kenyan waters, Tanzania has about 35 and Mozambique 25.
"But we need to protect our resources to avoid further destruction," she said.
She made the remarks during an interview in her Mombasa office. "We are working out modalities of having an effective marine resource management system which will included all stakeholders", she said.
The doctor said without proper management systems of the marine resources, it would be useless to have them. The resources have massive implications on the economic impact of the local communities and the entire country, she said.
"Tourism and other economic activities that affect the communities directly or indirectly have to be considered for effective management processes," she said.
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