Eco-Fishing

Freshwater Biodiversity conservation should be over-riding priority to save the planet. 

Eco-Fishing is  an Ecosystem based approach  intended to bolster sustainable fishing practices through production, distributing and encouraging the use of affordable and standardized artificially propagated Live Baitfish for Nile Perch(NP) fishery as a means to eradicate over-fishing of both NP and endangered forage species, as well as biodiversity loss and climate related disasters.

The solution leverages low-tech innovative and sustainable aquaculture techniques mainly RAS Technology and Induced spawning, integrated with Minilivestock that utilizes Water Hyacinth invading African Freshwater bodies as organic feed converted by BSF as major source of quality fish feeds.

This is a proven approach with major implications for replenishment and sustainability of endangered endemic species especially African catfishes, Cichlid and Bagrus species as well as Over-fished NP on Lake Victoria Basin, whilst empowering 45million local people whose livelihood depend on this precious Freshwater Biodiversity heritage.

Recent IUCN-Led Report has found that, African Livelihood is in danger as freshwater species in African's largest lake face extinction. This is one of the largest documented losses of biodiversity in an ecosystem associated with Nile perch predation, Overfishing and Eutrophication.

In Africa, over-fishing is a recurrent problem closely tied to climate change. When extreme weather compromises food production, rural communities turn to hunting and fishing to satisfy their protein needs. 

However, there has been little or no concerns/ documentations for illegal Over-harvesting endemic forage species for baitfish Trade.

 According to Lake Victoria Fishery Organization (LVFO), approximated biomass of endemic species baited annually is 10,000t (2billion forage fishes). Yet only 60% make to the hook alive, since approximately 40% are killed due to poor handling during harvesting, transportation and storing. 

The increasing demand for Wild baitfish suppresses the recovery of resurging species with an adverse impact on freshwater biodiversity and immense threat to local livelihood, as over-exploited forage fish species, and have been their major sources of animal protein and micro-nutrients.

Biodiversity decline on this precious and most significant heritage in Africa is devastating. If urgent measures aren't implemented, the planet will lose majority of indigenous species that inhabit nowhere.

There are few alternative to Baitfish and the problem is growing and apparently insoluble. Wild-Caught baitfish cannot provide a consistent supply for NP fishery and Artisanal fishers tend to embark on illegal fishing when they lack fish baits.

Numerous unsuccessful attempts has been carried out to replace live-baits with artificial Lures for NP fishery. The only suggested possible solution is; intensive culture of baitfish species (LVFO, 2009). 

Though, the challenging concern has been how to intensively propagate viable freshwater baitfish species reliable and affordable by Artisan fishermen.

Through years of trials and errors, Eco-Fishing has successfully implemented a Low-tech RAS Technology integrated with Minilivestock (Black Soldier flies farming) that facilitates production of high quality and affordable Clarias Baitfish for NP Fishery.  

Clarias Fish species have proven to be more reliable and preferred  for NP Fishing since they are air-breathing and sturdy, hence can easily be hooked and stay alive for a long period of time and can be reused, hence reducing fish bait expenses for local fishermen.

Our solution helps eradicate over-fishing of both NP  and  endemic fish species harvested for Bait trade since, artificially propagated baits are standardized by size as per Authority restriction, affordable, reliable, accessible, and Reusable.

FRESHWATER BIODIVERSITY SHOULD BE OVER-RIDING CONSERVATION PRIORITY TO SAVE THE PLANET

Water covers about 71% of earth surface. 97% of the earth's water, is found in the oceans (too salty for drinking, growing crops, and industrial use).  Only 3% of the earth's water is fresh, while 2.5% is Unavailable (locked up in Glaciers, polar ice caps, atmosphere and soil). Accessible Freshwater in the form of Rivers, Lakes, ponds and Wetland is only 0.5% of total water found on Earth surface.

140,000 described species-including 55% of all fishes rely on 0.5% Freshwater habitats for their survival. But, it is Amazing that 51% of world's fish species are found in freshwater than oceans.  These Freshwater species are most significant to local ecosystems, provide food and nutrition security and income to human, and are key to flood and erosion control.

This precious and most significant heritage is rarely included as an explicit target for conservation. Yet it is in imperilment, facing rapid decline in biodiversity far greater than those in the most affected terrestrial and marine ecosystem due to habitat loss, introduction of alien species, pollution and over-harvesting.

LAKE VICTORIA AS ONE OF AFRICAN AND TROPICAL GREATEST FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM

Lake Victoria, with its surface area of 68,800 km2, is the largest Freshwater Lake in Africa, World's largest tropical lake and the second largest in the world. It’s a trans-boundary lake shared by three countries (Tanzania – 51%, Uganda 43% and Kenya – 6%) with a catchment (Basin,194,000 square kilometers) spreading over five different countries (Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). Its watershed is home to approximately 45 million people with a population density of 300 persons per square kilometer, possibly the highest in Africa and still growing at 3.5% per year. These people depend directly and indirectly from the ecosystem of lake Victoria.

The Lake is now dominated by a three species for commercial fishery: Nile Perch, Nile Tilapia and Silver .

The Lake Victoria Nile perch (NP) fishery (fishing and post-harvest activities) is a significant contributor to the social and economic development of the Lake Victoria's surrounding Livelihood.  The catch of NP has averaged 250,000 tonnes per annul for the last two decades and targeted by 52%(115,515) of the fishers on Lake Victoria. It contributes 19% to the total catch, but the contribution to the total values is 52% because it is a high-value commercial species.

 Lake Victoria's NP fisheries are intimidated by increased Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing. Between 2006 and 2016, small hook (≥ 10), which are illegal and mainly targeting Nile Perch increased by 302 percent from 3 million to 14 million. Monofilament nets, which catch fish indiscriminately and are illegal, increased from 2,293 to 72,101 during the same period. All this has been as a result of lacking reliable fish gears especially Fishbaits which are only available during rainy seasons. 

Over-fishing of Nile Perch has resulted in the decline in Nile Perch catches by 37 percent from 264,070 metric tonnes in 2016 to 165,083 metric tonnes in 2015. The number of industrial processing plants decreased by 59% from 41 to 17 with loss of jobs and redundant processing capacity. The volume of Nile Perch exports to international markets also decreased by 57% from 109 million tonnes to 47 million tonnes.

ECOFISHING SOLUTION ON LAKE VICTORIA

EcoFishing's solution is projected to directly help approximately 110,000 Nile perch  fishermen obtain reliable Fishing gear (fishbait) which will in return play a great role in reducing illegal fishing in lake Victoria and contribute towards sustainable fishing practices and conserve endangered species especially those exploited as fishbait. This will also impact 3million local people across E.Africa directly employed in lake Victoria's fishery sectors and indirectly impact 45 million people whose livelihood depend from lake Victoria's ecosystem.

In general, Conserving  freshwater  Biodiversity as an asset of Lake Victoria basin offers both social and economical benefits in tourism, traditional medicine, food security and trade in Fishery and traditional handcraft goods such as mats, baskets and other woven  goods, not forgetting women who are employed in  fishery value chain activities such as fish processing, bait collection and Marketing. 

ECOFISHING is an ecosystem-based approach  that employs Low-tech Aquaculture and Minilivestock techniques with minimum CO2 emissions and negative impact to the environment to Conserve Freshwater Fish species, catalyze ecosystem restoration, and using our work to educate the public and engage local stakeholders about the urgent need to protect Freshwater   biodiversity while Guaranteeing food and nutrition security for the livelihood of both current and future communities.

Our solution is also a scalable economic opportunity that local community can easily venture to create employment opportunities while conserving  our freshwater and  terrestrial endemic biodiversity. 

In 2019 we completed the proof of concept phase as we successfully propagated Clarias Gariepinus by induced spawning at 50% cost lower compared to the prevailing market price for baitfish on lake Victoria.

We got a good customer feedback that our baits are well hardened or acclimate, thus Fishermen can reuse them more than twice hence reducing their need to repurchase baits regularly.

At the moment, we are producing approximately 100,000 clarias fish baits  per month and supplied to individual fishermen on  landing sites in Mwanza Tanzania.  

Though this production capacity is miniature since, at least one NP landing site in Mwanza demands more than 3million fishbaits per month and Mwanza region only has over 20 major landing sites.

However, we are still in process of introducing other species which are reliable for NP Fishing especially for Deep water  fishing  like Bagrus Docmark.

Nile Perch (NP) are predatory fish that prey on forage fish. For NP Long-line fishery, hooks are commonly baited with live baits. The wiggling action and natural movement of live bait attracts hungry and curious fish, therefore increasing  catching chances.

Clarias species widespread in Africa have proved to be excellent choice for a for NP and other carnivorous fish species fishing  since, they are sturdy ( easily hooked),  air breathing (easily handled) and tolerate stress.

However, intensive Production of Clarias species as Live fishbaits is a very complicated, expensive and scientific  process since, these species do not reproduce in ponds unless they are artificially propagated by induced spawning.

The innovative part about our sustainable solution is; a low-tech innovation  that intensively produces baitfish at minimum cost with minimum negative environmental impact, whilst conserving the biodiversity of our ecosystem.

The interesting part is that, these artificially propagated baitfish of clarias species can be reused since their lastingness is very high, making fishermen spend less money in the purchase of Fishbaits.

In Additional, our Solution  helps alleviate the impact of  water hyacinth on lake Victoria basin by utilizing it  as convenient method to feed insets which in turn are essential source of protein  and other essential nutrients for Fish, human and other livestocks, hence reducing the use of fish meal.

Lastly, this solution can easily be Scaled up and implemented in other parts of the world to control over-fishing and illegal wild-caught baitfish trade like in Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon etc.

As a pilot, we are currently serving 300 fishermen with the production capacity of at least 100,000 live baits per month.

If the Solution is successfully scaled up with the projection capacity of 3million live baits per month, we expect to reach at-least 5000 fishermen by next year.

in 5years, if the project is fully scaled up and reach a production capacity of at least 15million, we will reach approximately 100,000  fishermen.

Once the project is fully scaled-up and meet the full demand of baitfish on lake Victoria, more than 2 billion forage species will be spared ever year. Some of these species are important sources of food and nutrition to local people on lake Victoria basin such as African catfishes.  If these species are spared to replenish, in short-term, food and nutrition security will be improved as well as livelihood of 45million people living on the basin of lake Victoria especial those who are directly or indirectly depend from its ecosystem.

The solution's Impact is Measured by the Volume of Artificial live baitfish produced and distributed to local fishermen. The more the Artificial baits are distributed, the less the endemic forage fish are harvested for baitfish hence sustainable fishing on lake Victoria.

Also, the more Artificialy propagated Baitfish are supplied to artisan fishermen, they are mostly likely to abstain from other illegal fishing methods. This is because, long-line and Line fishing is the cheapest gear fishing method on lake victoria but unreliable due scarcity of fish baits.

However a formal Impact evaluation will be carried out as the project is scaled up.

Full Time =4

Part time = 4

total 8 people

Our team is made up of 4 youg entrepreneur  with a vast range of professional skills in Business Management,  Economics, Aquaculture and Civil Engineer.  Within 6 years working at Tanzania Eco-farms, we have gained extensive knowledge and expertise in Agribusiness and Aquaculture in particular.

 For the last 6 years our major activity has been production of fish Fingerlings for Fish Farmers. We have been producing and supplying fingerlings  and Educating local fish farmers around Tanzania with a supply base of more than 1million fingerlings supplied to  around 260 local fish farmers.

Our Team and I, are born and raised on Lake Victoria basin( Mwanza and Kagera) and some of our parents are fishermen, thus we have a clear understanding of what is actually facing our community and this is why we are very committed  and keen to find solutions to save our community's biodiversity.

General objectives: To intensify live bait production for Lake Victoria’s artisanal fisheries by employing innovative, sustainable and economical aquaculture techniques, hence convey enormous social, environmental and economic benefits to the local communities especially those directly depending on lake Victoria’s ecosystem.

Specific objectives.

• To supply high quality fish baits and fingerling for artisanal fishery and aquaculture industry respectively.
•  To maximize Aquaculture production by a way of synergic interaction with other farming and livestock production.
• Reduce Waste and Loss in Fish Value Chain.
• Improve the livelihood of the community especially the youth and woman.

Team’s vision

The organization’s vision it to become a state of art industry that will intensively produce tones of bait fish species and quality fish fingerlings that will cater enormous demand of live baits for lake Victoria’s artisanal fisheries and local fish farmers respectively.  

Team’s mission: to conserve Lake Victoria by making use of innovative and sustainable aquaculture practices that will be passed to the communities hence improving the livelihood of local people in East Africa.

Diversity: We cannot solve the threat of human induced climate change and loss of biodiversity in isolation. We either solve both or we solve neither., Sir Robert Watson. our theory of change involves a variety of stakeholders including Fishermen, Fish traders, Fish Consumers and both Government and non government bodies.

Equity: Our policies, practices, and Solutions are designed in a  way such all people of all backgrounds are considered. 

Inclusion: We strive to create sustainable solutions to save our planet.

We have spent 3 year of Trials and error to develop and try to scale up  our solution. Our biggest  drawback has been lack of Technical and Finance support which hinders us  scale up the our  solution.

As our solution is in early stage and a new business venture in Africa, it has been very difficult to secure loans from Local financial institution.

We cannot solve the threat of human induced climate change and loss of biodiversity in isolation. We either solve both or we solve neither., Sir Robert Watson.

We strongly believe, by successfully becoming a solver and Join a team of technological experts working towards solving planet problems, we will be able to solve our initial hurdles through getting access to funding, Mentorship, Coaching, and Networking to relevant stakeholders such as policymakers, Solvers, development partners and technological experts.

We plan to use the Prize money to purchase and install a 5KW wind turbine to provide a renewable source of reliable Power which will reduce our production costs and fish kill due to Power cuts.

1.  Human Capital: Our team is in deficit of professional in Technology,  biogeochemistry and Aquaculture science. By joining MIT Team, we believe we will get the professional human capital to join us.
2. Business Model: At the moment our business model  is not formaly formulated. We need MIT Team' help to develop our Business model so that is can be more profitable, Scalable and attractive to pitch to investors.
3.  Financial & Technology: As described before, our major obstacle is securing enough Fund to scale up the solution. Intensive production of Fish baits for NP fishery is a Technological venture since these species are artificialy propagated by induced spawning hence they require very carefully Nursing to attain high mortality. This is why we intend to invest in State of art Hatchery with RAS technology for intensive production.
4. Monitoring & Evaluation. We need also support to Monitor and Evaluate our Solution's impact.

1. MIT SEA GRANT PROGRAM.

  We believe our solution's goals are aligned with the MIT sea Grant which  focuses on  promoting  both freshwater and marine conservation, fisheries-supported research contributed to gear improvements that elevated sustainability and reduced by-catch and explore strategies to add value to non-target fish species and  support local economies.

We strongly believe that, this institution will help us solve our major challenge of lacking Technical support, human capital, monitoring and Evaluation.

2. InsectiPro

We are also very interested to Partner with InsectiPro for Black soldier Fly farming while utilizing water hyacinth as organic feed.

We believe this alliance will create mutual benefit since it will solve InsectiPro's challenge of scarcity of Organic waste for feed and marketing. 

3 Smartfish Mexico

 We are also very interested with deploying Smartfish Mexico business model on Lake Victoria fishing industry integrated with Bait industry,.

4. ColdHubs.

Most of Fish landing sites on lake Victoria are remote ares and off the grid.  Fishermen spend a lot of money purchasing ice blocks to store the fish.  if we partnered with ColdHubs, they can brings refrigeration to off-grid communities in lake Victoria basin, enabling fishermen extend shelf life of their catches.

5. TrueTrade. We are also interested to make alliance with TrueTrade for Artisanal Fish Marketing.

6. We are open to partnership with any Governments, international actors, academia, and NGOs working towards rescuing freshwater and marine biodiversity. 

Ecofishing is qualified for the prize because we wants to make a transition to more sustainable food systems and reverse the loss of freshwater biodiversity through encouraging sustainable fishing practices in E.African's local communities..

Our business model focuses on directly helping approximately 200,000 fishermen on Lake Victoria abstain from illegal and unsustainable fishing practices by supplying them with artificial propagated live fish baits which are standardized to catch fishes of intended size.This will also impact 1million local people directly employed in Fish industry on Lake Victoria and the livelihood of 45 million people depending from this ecosystem.

Our solution will also help fight against invasive water weeds that  contributes to Eutrophication and hinder fishing activities on Lake Victoria.

In 5 years we predict more than 2 billion wild endemic fish species in E. Africa will be spared every year from being harvested for Fishbait industry.  this will Replenish depleted fish stocks as well as  immense fishery potential for the local communities surrounding water bodies that have been endangered by over-fishing.

We intend to use the prize money to scale up our solution by next year to produce about  30million fishbaits annual.

Women have significant role in world fisheries but traditionally, fisheries have been associated with men focusing primarily on capture fisheries, rather than women-dominated pre- and post-harvest activities, such as, bait collection and trade, processing, and marketing the fish. Women also perform diverse unpaid or underpaid tasks such as mending nets, collecting bait, preparing food for fishers, and keeping accounts, which are unacknowledged or undercounted as employment. 

In E.Africa Fishbait Traders are mostly women.  They travel to remote places to collect baits and transport to Landing sites of lake Victoria.  These bait trade is illegal trade since it always  involve collecting baits from areas which are reserved for wildlife conservation or not legalized by the government.

EcoFishing's solution doesn't only focus in helping Fishermen, but also women fish traders especially illegal Bait traders whose  mobility patterns revolve around remote  harvesting sites, fish-landing beaches, retail markets and their rural homes, exposes them to risks such as Rape, HIV and sometimes jailed or fined once captured by the authorities.

Our Business model involves selling artificial propagated fishbaits through bait traders mostly women at affordable prices ( less than the prevailing market price for wild fish baits), which will encourage bait traders abstain from illegal wild caught fishbait trade while reducing women's mobility and improve their livelihood.

The prize money will be invested in scaling up the solution and  establish a credit facility which will involve supplying fishbaits on credit to women bait traders which will empower them and abstain from illegal bait trade.

The ocean makes about 70% of planet Earth, but it's strange that it has
one of the lowest biodiversities we see in an  ecosystem. This is
because, organisms in the ocean need nutrients to grow. The oceans get
these essential nutrients from water that has run off from land. If we want to save ocean's biodiversity, we should not neglect the role of inland
water bodies that are on top of food chain for the oceans.

Tanzania EcoFarm is qualified for the prize because we wants to make a transition to more sustainable food systems and reverse the loss of freshwater biodiversity through encouraging sustainable fishing practices.

Our business model focuses on directly helping approximately 200,000 fishermen on Lake Victoria abstain from illegal and unsustainable fishing practices by supplying them with artificial propagated live fish baits which are standardized to catch fishes of intended size.

Our solution will also help fight against invasive water weeds that  contributes to Eutrophication and hinder fishing activities on Lake Victoria.

In 5 years we predict more than 2 billion wild endemic fish species in E. Africa will be spared every year from being harvested for Fishbait industry.  this will Replenish depleted fish stocks as well as  immense fishery potential for the local communities surrounding water bodies that have been endangered by over-fishing.

we intend to use the prize money to scale up our solution by next year to produce about  30million fishbaits annual.

Tanzania EcoFarm is qualified for the prize because we wants to make a transition to more sustainable food systems and reverse the loss of freshwater biodiversity through encouraging sustainable fishing practices.

Our business model focuses on directly helping approximately 200,000 Nile Perch fishermen on Lake Victoria abstain from illegal and unsustainable fishing practices by supplying them with artificial propagated live fish baits which are standardized to catch fishes of intended size.

Our solution will also help fight against invasive water weeds that  contributes to Eutrophication and hinder fishing activities on Lake Victoria.

In 5 years we predict more than 2 billion wild endemic fish species in E. Africa will be spared every year from being harvested for Fishbait industry.  this will Replenish depleted fish stocks as well as  immense fishery potential for the local communities surrounding water bodies that have been endangered by over-fishing.

we intend to use the prize money to scale up our solution by next year to produce about  30million fishbaits annual. The fund will specifically be used  to source and integrate various aquaculture Artificial intelligence systems and machines such as  Xpertsea for counting fish, eFishery for feeding, and other Water quality management AI.