Assessment of artisanal fishery and indigenous knowledge on fisheries of Lake Zeway, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

The present study was aimed to assess artisanal fishry and indigenous knowledge on fishing maintained by local people around Lake Zeway. To know fish status, fish samples were collected from fishermen catch during wet (April and July 2020) and dry seasons (October and November 2020) by the aid of fishermen using indigenous fishing methods and gill nets with (6, 8, and 10cm, stretched mesh size). Field observations and questionnaires were used to collect data from sample respondents on artisanal fisheryand indigenous knowledge. A total of 1360 fish specimens were recorded from the three families. The species were: Oreochromis niloticus and Coptodon zillii from the family Cichilidae (46.10%); Carassius carassius, Cyprinus carpio, Enteromiuspaludinosus, Labeobarbus intermedius and Labeobarbusa ethiopicus from the family Cyprinidae (47.80%); and only Clarias gariepinus from the family Clariidae (6.10%). During this study, Cyprinidae relatively dominated the fish composition of the lake. At the species level, Oreochromis niloticus was the dominant fish species from the Family Cichilidae as well as the whole species of the lake (38.16 %) followed by Cyprinus carpio with (24.63). The species diversity status for the lake was between 1.5 and 1.65 with relatively high species diversity observed in Bashra Chefa. The study also revealed that the fishers’ indigenous knowledge related to fish and fisheries show clearly the value of this knowledge provides a necessary base for sustainable use of fish resources of the area. There are traditional fishing methods such as Hand kicking, pool-trapping, hand picking and others developed by the fishermen. The tools they used to catch fish were made manually from locally available materials such as Gubo tree, Balsa wood, cotton thread. From this point of view, indigenous knowledge was playing a vital role in the livelhood of the poor fishermen. Therefore, this knowledge should be upgraded and documented for further usage of the coming generations. To upgraded and document this knowledge, detailed studies and investigations are required