Assessment of the Marine Artisanal Fisheries in Tanzania Mainland

PresentationThe main objective of this study was to describe the marine artisanal fishery in Tanzania mainland by manipulating data from frame and catch assessment surveys from 1984 -2011. Results showed that catches have been fairly stable while fishing effort has been increasing leading to decline in CPUE. This could be attributed to population growth, poor fishing technology, use of non-motorized small vessels, and competition. Ring nets dominated the fishery in terms of catch landed per gear. Beach seines, and spears, which are illegal, have been increasing overtime. A linear regression analysis showed that fishers, vessels, gears, and catch value were significant variables in explaining variations in landed catch over the time period (r2 = 0.7833). Dar es Salaam recorded the highest catch (p = 2.6E-06) because of better markets and facilities while the lowest was observed in Mtwara (p = 0.01126). Coast region recorded more vessels and gears. Catch was significantly different (p = 2.2E-06) across districts within five regions. Ilala district recorded the highest. Average income was significantly high in Dar es Salaam (p = 0.008469) because of urbanization and concentration of economic activities. Two clusters of regions that were similar according to species landed were observed. Coast, Tanga, Lindi and Dar es Salaam were similar in species composition whereas Mtwara was different with fewer species. Data collection, entry and analysis need to be done in a consistent manner. Proper data collection, management, and analysis could lead to fisheries sector being more representative towards the GDP of the country