Fisheries Regulations, 2009

(1) A person shall not- (a) use poison to kill or catch fish; (b) posses fish killed by poison; or (c) use poison to kill and preserve fish and fishery products except for training and research purposes. (2) A person who contravenes the provision of sub-regulation (1) commits an offense and on conviction shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than seven years. (3) An Authorised Officer shall, for the purpose of ascertaining whether a fish has been killed by poison- (a) observe the physical characteristics of the poisoned fish or conduct a rapid test and record the results in Form 9 set out in the First Schedule; or (b) take the samples to an approved laboratory for analysis.

(1) A person shall not posses or use with intent of killing fish, fishing or destroy fishery habitat- (a) an explosives or explosive material; (b) a dynamite; (c) a substance, or a mixture of substances, in a solid, powder or liquid state, which is capable of producing an explosion; (d) any pyrotechnic substance in a solid or liquid state, or a mixture of such substances, designed to produce an explosion by heat, light, sound, gas or smoke including pyrotechnic substances which do not evolve gases; (e) any article, device, detonator or fuse used to initiate explosion; (f) any plastic explosive; or (g) any other substance or article which the Minister responsible for arms and ammunition may by notice in the Gazette declare to be an explosive. (2) A person shall not possess fish killed by explosives, dynamite or any means provided for under sub-regulation (1). (3) Any person who contravenes the provisions of sub regulations (1) or (2) commits an offense and on conviction shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years. (4) For the purpose of ascertaining whether a fish has been killed by explosives, the Authorised Officer shall use Form 4 set out in the First Schedule for evidence on dynamited fish.

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in these regulations a person shall not- (a) manufacture, import, possess, store, stock, or sell monofilament net; (b) use or cause another person to use monofilament net in all fresh water and marine water fisheries; (c) posses, store, sell, use or cause another person to use harpoon guns, spear guns to fish; (d) use any modified seine net of any kind popularly known as “mtando”, “juya la kojani”, “kavogo” or any name as it may be, to catch fish in any water body; (e) use cast net to catch fish in capture fisheries; (f) manufacture, posses, store, sell, use or cause another person to use for fishing a gill net of mesh size less than three inches or 76.2 millimetres in any fresh water body; (g) manufacture, sell, stock, store and possess beach seine net; (h) use or cause another person to use or possess beach seine net in any water body; (i) use vertical integration of nets in any water body; (j) use for fishing drifting method “tembea” in any freshwater water body; (k) posses, use or cause any person to use for fishing ‘dagaa’ fishnet of mesh size less than eight millimetres in any fresh water body; (l) manufacture, posses, store, sell, use or cause another person to use for fishing a gillnet of more than twenty six meshes deep in Lake Victoria (m) practice or cause another person to practice ‘katuli’ for the purpose of fishing in any water body; (n) carry out any fishing activity using trawl net or otherwise engage in trawling in any fresh water body except for prawn and pelagic fishery in marine waters; (o) disturb fish by skin diving or cause another person to disturb fish in any critical habitat such as fish breeding areas, nesting, resting habitats and fish pathways; (p) stun, harm, kill fish by electrification; (q) use self-contained underwater breathing apparatus or Scuba or compressed air breathing equipment of any kind to capture fish, marine invertebrates, aquatic flora or living marine resources. (r) posses, use or cause another person to use for fishing any gear with mesh sizes below one and a half inches or thirty eight millimetres in marine waters except for “dagaa”. (s) posses, use or cause any person to use for fishing ‘dagaa’ fishnet of mesh size less than ten millimetres in marine waters. (t) posses, use or cause another person to use trawl nets with mesh size of less than two inches or forty five millimetres for fishing prawns in marine waters except for approved research and training purposes; (u) posses on board or use or cause another person to use a trawl net with tickler chain in prawn fishing or any other fishing practice; (v) operate or cause another person to operate a trawl net with more than two nets at any trawling time in any water body; (w) posses, use or cause another person to use any dredging and any gear that scraps the sea bed during fishing in any water body except for approved research and training purposes; (x) use stakes and weirs in rivers, lakes, ocean, estuaries, breeding areas, critical habitats and controlled areas. (2) Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus or Scuba or compressed air breathing equipment may be used for sport fishing, capturing of live aquarium fin fish, training and research purpose only. (3) Notwithstanding sub-regulation (1)(e) a person shall not possess, import, sell, use or cause another person to use for fishing, a gill net of mesh size less than six inches or 152.4 millimetres and nine ply in Lake Victoria except for research and training purposes. (4) A person who contravenes this regulation commits an offense and on conviction shall be liable to a fine of not less than two million shillings or to imprisonment for a term of three years or to both.

(1) -A person shall not fish, possess, process, offer for sale, market or export marine and fresh water species, any part or any product of the species recognised as being globally or regionally endangered as listed in the Third Schedule. (2) A person shall not fish, possess, process, offer for sale or market marine turtles, dugong, whale sharks, dolphins or any marine species recognized globally or regionally as endangered species listed in the Third Schedule. (3) A person shall not purposely disturb or destroy the feeding, breeding or nesting ground of marine turtles, dugong, whale shark, dolphins or any other freshwater and marine fish species recognised globally or regionally as endangered listed in the Third Schedule. (4) Any person who accidentally captures live marine turtles, dugong, whale shark, dolphins or any other freshwater and marine fish species listed in the Third Schedule recognised globally or regionally as endangered, shall immediately return the animal to the sea, and shall maintain a logbook of all such captures and report the same to a district or any fisheries office.

(1) -A person shall not fish, possess, process, offer for sale, market or export marine and fresh water species, any part or any product of the species recognised as being globally or regionally endangered as listed in the Third Schedule. (2) A person shall not fish, possess, process, offer for sale or market marine turtles, dugong, whale sharks, dolphins or any marine species recognized globally or regionally as endangered species listed in the Third Schedule. (3) A person shall not purposely disturb or destroy the feeding, breeding or nesting ground of marine turtles, dugong, whale shark, dolphins or any other freshwater and marine fish species recognised globally or regionally as endangered listed in the Third Schedule. (4) Any person who accidentally captures live marine turtles, dugong, whale shark, dolphins or any other freshwater and marine fish species listed in the Third Schedule recognised globally or regionally as endangered, shall immediately return the animal to the sea, and shall maintain a logbook of all such captures and report the same to a district or any fisheries office.

(5) A fishing vessel that intends to use any of the designated ports for the purpose of landing fish, transhipping catch or for any fisheries related transaction shall provide advance notification and information as prescribed in Form 26 set out in the First Schedule.

(19) A person shall not import, export, transport, sell or expose for sale, receive, acquire or purchase interstate or foreign commerce any fish or fishery product taken, processed, transported or sold in violation of ratified conventions.

(1) The Director shall establish and maintain a Vessel Monitoring System popularly known as VMS in the industrial sea fishery. (2) The Director shall appoint from amongst Authorised Officers, experts to manage the day to day functions of the Vessel Monitoring System. (3) The Vessel Monitoring System operation room shall monitor all the movement of the vessels. (4) A fishing vessel shall, while at sea, at all times have all its Vessel Monitoring System gadgets switched on. (5) A captain of any commercial fishing vessel shall abide by all instructions given by the Director. (6) A person other than Authorised Officer shall not enter the Vessel Monitoring System operations room unless authorised. (7) A commercial fishing vessel which has been granted fishing licence in accordance to Regulation 11 shall at all time be equipped with an automatic satellite linked Vessel Monitoring System compatible with the one installed in the office of the Director. (8) Information transmitted shall include the vessel identification mark, latitude, longitude, date, time, course and speed which shall be transmitted all the time. (9) The performance standards of the equipment shall have inter alia the following qualities- (a) be temper proof; (b) be polled by the monitoring room; (c) a two-way messaging capability between the vessel and the monitoring centre; (d) be fully automatic and operational at all times regardless of environmental conditions; (e) provide real time data. (10) The captain shall, in the event of malfunctioning of the Vessel Monitoring System use other means as appropriate including fax, radio to provide the required data or information after every twenty four hours. (11) Vessel Monitoring System data shall, where necessary be admitted as evidence in fisheries offenses.