Efficiency of two live bait types for Synodontis afrofischeri Longline Fishery, Napoleon Gulf, Lake Victoria.

Abstract

Synodontis afrofischeri also commonly referred to as the Fischer’s Victoria Squeaker and locally as ‘Nkolongo’ is harvested for various roles e.g. source of nutrients to man, income generation and also as an ornamental in aquaria. There is however not enough literature to elaborate on how to sustainably manage and utilize the fishery in Lake Victoria. Fishermen use various bait types to harvest this fish, which not only time consuming but also damage other fishery resources e.g. harvesting under-sized haplochromines to serve as bait. This study was therefore aimed at finding the most efficient bait type between earth worm and haplochromines in the long line fishery in the Napoleon gulf, Lake Victoria, Uganda. The study was carried out for a period of twelve days and the statistical analysis of results indicated that was a significant difference in the number of Synodontis afrofisheri catches obtained using the two different bait types (The Mann Whitney test, T= -2.159, p= 0.031 P<0.05), with earth worm showing higher number of catches compared to Haplochromines species. The findings can be used to guide the Government through MAAIF to inform fishermen to use earth worm bait type to harvest Synodontis afrofischeri.