The Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU) has impounded a total of 550 illegal fishing nets and immature Nile patches weighing 100 kilogrammes as a way of fighting illegal fishing in Kalungu and Mpigi districts.

In an operation carried out on January 4, 2024, Lieutenant Lauben Ndifuna, the unit’s spokesperson, stated that many illegalities were impounded, including monofilament nets, ditch chains, large boats with substandard fishing gear, immature fresh Nile patch and Tilapia, equivalent to 100 kg, and one motorcycle, among others.                  “Such operations are being carried out countrywide,” Ndifula stated. He stated that the unit also impounded two big boats, the immature Tilapia weighing 30 kilogrammes, two pieces of beach sand, and 900 metres of sand lines that were used by fishermen.

FPU appealed to the fishermen and the fish dealers to avoid losses and desist from buying and selling immature fish. Earlier in 2023, the fisheries protection unit, together with local authorities in these two districts, conducted a crackdown on illegal fishing on various landing sites on the shores of Lake Victoria.

The crackdown against illegal fishing follows a 2017 directive by President Yoweri Museveni to the UPDF to be deployed on Uganda’s lakes in a bid to curb illegal fishing practices, which he said were endangering fishing resources to the point of depletion.