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Institutes annual reports, for example; Darwall, 1995, Mmochi, et al., 1997, Jiddawi et al., 1994. Others are consultancy reports, for example; Horrill, 1992, Killango, 1984, Barnett, 1997, student reports Knox, 1999,
Meyers, 1999. Graduate thesis Mhitu, 1997, Mgimwa, 1997, Jiddawi, 1999. Most of the above publications can be obtained from Universities. FAO reports with limited publications can be obtained from the FAO headquarters
in Rome. The abstracts of these reports can also be found in ASFA. Some of the fisheries information has been documented as videos and are available through the Marine extension development unit of the Institute of Marine
Sciences.
3.5.6 Age of information oldrecent
About 45 of the references were written in 1990s especially the project reports such as those from Tanga Makoloweka et al., 1997a, from Mafia Darwall et al., 1996a, from Mtwara Guard, 1998, from Bagamoyo
Semesi and Howell, 1999 and MatemweMkokotoni area in Zanzibar Jiddawi and Stanley, 1999. About 36 of the reports have been written in 1980s and the rest between 1920 and 1970s. The earliest reference which was
located dated back to 1929 on the survey of marine fisheries of Zanzibar Protectorate Bonde, 1929. The earlier research papers particularly aimed at looking on how fisheries could be developed in the country. These were
followed by research on gear technology and species availability. Although, the rate of publications has been increasing Figure 3, most of the studies seem to be of short term and aimed at providing baseline information.
However, the reports have greatly assisted in one way or another in adressing scientific and management issues.
20 40
60 80
100 120
140
1900 1910
1920 1930
1940 1950
1960 1970
1980 1990
Years Number of research reports
Figure 3.3: Trend in fisheries research in Tanzania
3.6 Main findings and observation
3.6.1 Types of resource use
Fisheries resources are very important to Tanzania and fish contributes over 70 of the protein intake of the coastal population. Almost all people along the coast involve themselves in fishing activities. Whereas men go
out to fish in boats, women mostly glean the intertidal areas for gastropods, bivalves and sea cucumbers Coleman, 1998. The edible portion is consumed as food and the shells are sold to tourists. Coastal communities
depend on fishing as their main income activity and 95 of the fish landings in Tanzania is from these fishermen Haule and Kiwia, 1999. Some of these resources such as shark fins and sea cucumbers are exported to the Far
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East Barbett, 1997. The trade for these resources has been present in Tanzania for centuries, Shark meat is widely consumed although it is not very popular in comparison to other species of fish. Shark jaws and teeth are
sold to tourists. Some fish is exported fresh overseas and foreign exchange is available through the export of these products. Most of the export revenue comes from shrimps. The two main fishing grounds for shrimp are around
Bagamoyo Sadani and the Rufuji Delta in South of Tanzania where about five species of shrimps are caught Semesi and Ngoile, 1993
3.6.2 Condition of the resource
The fishery resources have reached the upper level of exploitation. This is believed to be due fishermen fishing in the same areas since time immemorial due to the limitation of the range of their fishing vessels which are not
powered by motor engines and due to lack of proper management strategies. Interviews with fishermen also confirm that catches are declining. Increase in fishing effort will not increase catch rates. The total annual catch in
Zanzibar was about 20, 000t in 1988 but currently it has dropped to less than 13000t. This reduction in fish catch can also be observed in some localised areas such as in Chwaka bay Jiddawi, 1999b and for specific fish such as
the reef fisheries of Zanzibar Jiddawi, 1998.
There are some resources, which have been affected more than others. For example in the Zanzibar the small pelagic fisheries, the catch has drastically decline from 600t in 1986 by the Zanzibar fisheries cooperation boats to
91t in 1997 Jiddawi, 1999a. The history of the purse seine fishery has been documented in a video produced by Jiddawi 1996 under the Marine Education and Extension Development Unit at the Institute of Marine Sciences,
Zanzibar. Fish resource assessment surveys conducted in the 1970s Birkett, 1978 and in the 1980s Iversen, et al
., 1985 gave estimates of the standing stocks for coastal water ranging from 94,000t to 174,000t. Annual yield estimates for demersal species was 38,000tyear and about 23,000t for pelagic species Ardill and Sanders, 1991.
Seashells and sea cucumbers are overexploited along the whole coast due to rampant collection. There have been no population studies of any of the commercially exploited species Horrill and Ngoile, 1991. However, the
traders claim that the sizes of some of the sea cucumbers have decreased, but they still continue to buy due to competition among traders. The catch rate of the long line fisheries in most parts of the region including Tanzania,
the catch rate, in numbers and weight, has declined drastically Ardill, 1984. Shark fin trade has also declined and some fish species are rarely seen now in Tanzania waters Barnett, 1997; Jiddawi and Shehe, 1999
3.6.3 Human impacts
