Deadly predator invades Kariba

FISHING tycoons who have exploited kapenta in Lake Kariba for decades are scrambling for alternative sources after a deadly alien predator, crayfish, invaded the world’s second largest man-made lake thereby threatening their businesses. Kapenta output in commercial fishing operations at the lake has declined sharply in the past decade, and at least 2 000 jobs have been lost as the predator devours kapenta and other fish species at an alarming rate.

There were about 4 000 workers in the industry a decade ago but the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) says at least 2 000 employees are still gainfully engaged in the kapenta fishing industry. Thousands more will be indirectly affected by the emergence of the ruthless predator, which produces clusters of eggs that hatch prolifically, as more firms review operations or completely shut down.

GAPWUZ, which has a large membership in the commercial fishing industry, said it is worried by the sudden turn of events. It said cash-strapped proprietors facing bankruptcy had handed over rigs to workers, who have to do fishing and pay a commission every month. “What we have seen is that more and more employers are giving fishing rigs to workers,” said Friday Zondo, vice president of GAPWUZ.

“They want to be paid 15 kilogrammes of dry kapenta per day; some of them want 10 kilogrammes, which comes up to about 400 kilogrammes per month. Every month they come back to collect the kapenta and sell in Harare, but workers have to shoulder the costs of maintaining the rigs,” Zondo said. The fishing companies, which include some of the country’s largest kapenta operations, have been trying to dodge costs as output declines, according to GAPWUZ. Annual kapenta output has gradually declined to less than 9 000 tonnes in 2012, from about 19 000 tonnes in 1992.In Binga alone, fishing firms said kapenta population had declined by 20 percent in the past decade.

Phillimon Mutale, chairman at Buumibwesu Kapenta Fishing Co-operative, said each of the 12 kapenta fishing co-operatives in the region produced over 400 tonnes per month a decade ago. Output had dropped to less than 800 kilogrammes per month, he said. At Chalala commercial fishing area, 60 kilometres west of Kariba, scores of rusty, abandoned fishing rigs lined harbours. They have been pulled ashore because companies are bleeding.

These rigs are a sad reminder of the once vibrant industry that employed close to 1 000 people on this part of the lake alone in the mid 1990s. Every week, shipping liners ferried hundreds of tonnes of kapenta per week, which attracted government to contracted modern warehousing facilities at Chalala, officially opened by President Robert Mugabe in 1993. With the boom in kapenta output, government responded by constructing houses, but the project has been abandoned due to low take up of stands as workers lose jobs and migrate.

“There is no future in this industry, I will have to pack and go,” Stephen Marongwa, who has been fishing here since 1986, said. Since 1974, output has been declining at the rate of 24,19 metric tonnes per annum. This pattern has also been observed in artisanal fish catches, which have been dropping at the rate of 37,26 tonnes per year, also as a result of overfishing and other climatic factors.

Even the ruling ZANU-PF party says it is worried that the aggressive killer species could decimate an industry that has thrived for close to 60 years. “The fishing industry has also been affected by the rogue alien fish which threatens to destroy the kapenta industry unless something is done quickly,” ZANU-PF said in a Central Committee report after its 14th National People’s Conference in December.

Crayfish eats almost anything that it finds, including plants, invertebrates, snails, small fish, fish eggs and even its own offspring. The predator has been spotted in Lake Kariba in massive numbers only 10 years after it was introduced from Australia for a fish farming project. It has been breeding out of control, eating the food sources of all fish breeds, including breams, leaving the entire aquatic ecosystem in turmoil.

At the University of Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba campus, researchers said the red claw crayfish had outpaced other aquatic populations because it has no natural predators. Even crocodiles don’t eat the red claw crayfish. “We don’t know yet what will happen to the ecosystem,” said ecologist, Simon Sibanda. Crayfish has been spotted in large rivers that flow into Lake Kariba, and they have been migrating fast, infesting all corners of the lake, including kapenta breeding corridors.

The red claw was first introduced in Zambia, which shares the lake with Zimbabwe. Scientists say the solution to the crayfish crisis would be large scale commercial exploitation. But although its flesh is high in protein, it is not a popular diet in Zimbabwe. “It (crayfish) is very dangerous and it is going to destroy the whole lake because it is eating everything,” said Marnie Kloppers, a tour operator with vast knowledge of the industry.

“There has been a sudden explosion,” he said.But even in the face of the destruction that has crippled a once thriving industry, there are still others who believe the explosion of crayfish might be a blessing. Environment, Water and Climate Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, is one of them. “They (crayfish) are in demand and they are breeding fast,” he told the Financial Gazette.

“So you ask yourself if this is a change for the better or worse. But the question is how do you control this?” he said. But while Kasukuwere believes crayfish can be commercially exploited, experts believe the species will not sustain an industry as big as the kapenta industry.