Lake Victoria: Abandoned fish cages slowly turning into ‘floating museums’

Many small-scale investors in cage fish farming in Lake Victoria have nothing to smile about.

Investments running into hundreds of thousands of shillings have reportedly failed to bring back the promised returns – leaving many small-scale investors grappling with loans and nursing financial stress.

In 2021, there were an estimated 5,300 fish cages in the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria – according to data from the Kenya Fisheries. 

Today, some of these fish cages, dot the waters of Lake Victoria like floating museums – with some owners forced to abandon the projects all together.

Despite the venture promising rich alternative for many fishermen, and fish farmers, cage fish farming in Lake Victoria has continued to be affected by a wide range of challenges like the high cost of production, inadequate supply of quality fish feeds and the theft of fish from the cages.

“The biggest problem is limited funds to efficiently manage these cages,” says Bob Allan, a fisherman in Sori in Nyatike, Migori County.

“Many people bought the cages, but then lacked funds to run and sustain them, and so many have been rotting in the lake,” he says.

There is also the feeling that the fishing community has not welcomed cage fish farming – with many considering its fish as being of 'poor' quality having not grown in a completely natural habitat.

“There are people who equate fish bred in the cages in the lake, to those bred in the ponds. Some people avoid them, they don’t want to eat them, and so we have to find market outside there, and not locally most of the time,” said Allan.

According to some of the residents, many fish cages continue to lie idle in the lake, most of them already damaged, and only counting days.

Residents argue that many rushed to buy the cages without first obtaining proper knowledge and the needed financial muscle to run it efficiently and profitably.

Already established businesses are, however, said to be doing well in cage fish farming in Lake Victoria, offering employment to hundreds of locals and to supplement fish production.

Many small scale cage fish farmers are asking for financial and technical support from the leadership of counties bodering the lake, like Busia, Migori, Kisumu, Siaya and Homa Ba and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.