THE government has suspended fishing activities in Lake Tanganyika to boost the population of fish.

The suspension will last three months from May 15 to August 15 this year to give room for fish to grow in large numbers in Lake Tanganyika, a strategy by the government to boost the growth of the country’s fishing sector, Kigoma District Commissioner Salimu Kali said yesterday here when addressing stakeholders, leaders and fishermen speaking with ,

DC Kali said that the move will aid the expansion of the market through the availability of enough fish, stressing that the core of the fishing sector is the presence of enough fish stock that caters for the existing demand.

“We are not only giving the lake a rest, instead, because of the data from research done in on the four countries using Lake Tanganyika, namely, Tanzania, Congo, Zambia and Burundi – led to the four nations to agree to postpone any activities in the lake for a period of 3-months every year,” he said.

He said that the exercise involved leaders from various levels of authority surrounding the lake native Kigoma residents, where they identified the time when fish deplete in number which led to the decision of halting activities for 3 months.

Kali said that the Livestock and Fisheries ministry came up with a solution to create cages for fish farming as well as other solutions for feeding fish which can help improve the income of every person dependent on fishing activities and contribute to the national income.

“Cages have already been built and will be supplied to fishermen this month as a procedure equal to the supply of cages in Mwanza Region. These cages have been built in Mwanza but they will be transported to Kigoma Region,” he said.

He also called upon the public to manage and protect the cages because they are the main beneficiaries of the project, where he called on the fishermen to work with the government to simplify the task and attract profits for the societies surrounding Lake Tanganyika

Some of the fishermen in the Kigoma district hailed the move adding that it will help reduce the risk of the depleting number of fish in the lake because they will be getting bigger fish of high value.