Review of the Tanzanian prawn Fishery

Abstract

A review of the prawn fishery of Tanzania from its development in early 1980's to closure in 2008 has been performed based on three major data sets; industrial prawn and fish catch data from Fisheries Division, river discharge data from Pangani Basin Water Office and prawn trawl survey data for 2009 from TAFIRI. Results show that prawn abundance (CPUE) and Pangani river discharge have been declining significantly over time while numbers of fishing boats and fishing days portrayed an increasing trend up to 2004. Furthermore the decline in prawn abundance was significantly associated with river discharge and fishing effort. However, a trawl survey conducted by TAFIRI in 2009 to assess the stock size of prawns has shown improvement in all fishing Zones of Tanzania