Assessment of exploited fish species in the Lake Edward System, East Africa

Musinguzi, Laban; Bassa, Samuel; Natugonza, Vianny; Steenberge, Maarten Van; Okello, William; Snoeks, Jos; Froese, Rainer

doi:10.1111/jai.14161

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(37 reference statements)

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“…Kariba weed), and habitat degradation; while shes in the Lake Albert system are more threatened by overexploitation and pollution. There was limited information on threats in the Lake Edward system, apart from reports of overexploitation for the major commercial sheries in the main Lakes Edward and George (Musinguzi et al, 2021). Table 1 also shows the designated red list categories at the national level compared to the global level.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The application of IUCN Red List criteria at the national level: a case study of non-Haplochromis fishes in Uganda

Akoth

Musinguzi²,

Efitre

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Assessing the conservation status of species according to their extinction risk is a major step in conservation planning. To date, most of the assessments have been conducted at a global scale; yet, most conservation efforts are conducted at the national or local scale. Also, the global assessments often do not fit individual countries whose biodiversity may have unique threats that are specific and distinct from those at the global level. Elsewhere, this problem has been addressed by developing national Red Lists; in Uganda, this approach is also taking root, except that it has only focused on terrestrial biota, with limited attention to freshwater biodiversity. To address this gap, we used species occurrence data, integrated with expert knowledge and literature, to assess the extinction risk of 110 non-Haplochromis fishes in Uganda at a national scale. Then, we compared these assessments with the IUCN global red list categories published by 2021. The national threat classifications differed substantially from those at the global level; specifically, more species were threatened at the national level than at the global level. Generally, this finding was expected as has been observed elsewhere, but for the case of Uganda, it was only expected for species with a wide distribution beyond the national boundaries and not for fishes that are geographically restricted, where the global and national threat statuses are expected to be comparable. This finding underscores the importance of national assessments even when species are designated as “Least concern” at the global level. This study constitutes the first national red list for fish species in Uganda. This work has the potential to (i) trigger site-based conservation and rethinking of the extent of protected areas, (ii) stimulate data collection, especially in areas where fishes are designated as “Data Deficient”, and (iii) aid updating of the regional and global IUCN Red List assessments, for which conservation status of the majority non-Haplochromis species is outdated and many others remain unevaluated.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The application of IUCN Red List criteria at the national level: a case study of non-Haplochromis fishes in Uganda

Akoth

Musinguzi²,

Efitre

et al. 2023

Preprint

Self Cite

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show abstract

“…AquaDocs provided access to reports from the past Game and Fisheries Department in Uganda and the National Fisheries Resources Research Institute (NaFIRRI), Uganda, which conducts research on water bodies in the system. The publications retained for review (Musinguzi, 2023) were 95 including 47 peer reviewed publications equivalent to 49.5% of the total (43 journal papers and 4 books or book chapters), and 48 publications of grey literature (50.5%). Most of the publications of grey literature (64.6%) were from AquaDocs, followed by 29.2% from other internet sources, and 6.3% from the FAO.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

State of knowledge of aquatic ecosystem and fisheries of the Lake Edward System, East Africa

Musinguzi,

Vranken,

Natugonza

et al. 2023

Aquaculture Fish & Fisheries

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Poor and unreliable knowledge of the status of freshwater fisheries limits their inclusion in governance processes, thereby impeding effective management measures. This threatens the livelihoods of people, particularly in developing countries. Improved knowledge is required to draw the attention of policymakers and stimulate effective management measures to accelerate the sustainability of the freshwater fisheries. In line with this requirement, this paper provides the state of knowledge of the aquatic ecosystem and fisheries of the Lake Edward system, East Africa, focusing on lakes Edward, George and the Kazinga channel. The state of knowledge was accomplished by reviewing existing data and information on aspects of primary productivity and water quality, invertebrates, fish fauna, fish life history and ecology, and fisheries. The waterbodies have been monitored since the 1930s, albeit sporadically, providing data on all the above aspects but with substantial temporal gaps. Adequate and updated data and information exist on the water quality status of the water bodies, extant aquatic taxa (including fishes) and fish catches but with uncertainties in the latter. Data and information gaps exist on the abundance of biotic communities, fish life history, quantitative trophic ecology and fisheries management reference points. The aggregated data and information can directly support decisions for fisheries management. We recommend regular monitoring to fill the data and information gaps, more comprehensive stock assessments and the development of aquatic ecosystem models.

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“…Catch-only methods (COMs) are data-limited stock assessment methods that mainly use the time series data for catch or landing to estimate stock biomass status (e.g., B/B MSY or depletion) and other common fishery reference points and quantities [35]. One of the COMs that has been widely applied to assess stock status is the catch-based maximum sustainable yield (CMSY) method, which has been used in the assessment of global [36], regional [37][38][39][40][41][42], single species [43][44][45][46][47], and multispecies fisheries [42,48,49]. CMSY uses the Monte Carlo technique to predict fishery reference points (MSY, F MSY , and B MSY ), relative stock size (B/B MSY ), and exploitation (F/F MSY ).…”

Section: Cmsy Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating Crisis: Insights into the Depletion and Recovery of Central Java’s Freshwater Eel (Anguilla spp.) Stocks

Nugroho,

Uehara

2024

Sustainability

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The southern coast of Central Java Province is one of Indonesia’s largest eels (Anguilla spp.) fishing grounds. The annual eel catches in this region showed an increasing trend in 2011–2014 but then plummeted in 2019–2021. However, studies on stock status are lacking to provide an effective management plan to prevent the collapse of eel fisheries. Therefore, this study assessed the state of freshwater eels in Southern Central Java using a data-limited method, catch-based maximum sustainable yield (CMSY). The analysis revealed a swift stock depletion, shifting from a healthy state in 2011 to a concerning red zone in 2015–2018. Subsequently, the stock began a recovery phase in 2019, but the recent trajectory raised concerns as it approached the red zone again, signaling the urgency of implementing a rebuilding plan. The simulation of several rebuilding scenarios suggests that reducing fishing mortality to 80% of the FMSY (maximum sustainable fishing mortality) can balance production and conservation objectives, achieving the quickest stock rebuilding with minimal catch loss. This study showed that eel stock could be rebuilt by reducing fishing pressure to preserve a surplus of individuals who can complete their migration and spawning cycles.

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Assessment of exploited fish species in the Lake Edward System, East Africa

Cited by 8 publications

References 24 publications

The application of IUCN Red List criteria at the national level: a case study of non-Haplochromis fishes in Uganda

The application of IUCN Red List criteria at the national level: a case study of non-Haplochromis fishes in Uganda

State of knowledge of aquatic ecosystem and fisheries of the Lake Edward System, East Africa

Navigating Crisis: Insights into the Depletion and Recovery of Central Java’s Freshwater Eel (Anguilla spp.) Stocks

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