Exploitation of offshore pelagic fish resources in Lake Tanganyika at Kigoma Tanzania (Fig. 1) effectively began in the 1970s when purse seine and lift-net fishing gear was introduced from Burundi (Co-lams 1973, Andrianos 1976, 1977). Before that, scoop-nets and beach seines were the main gear used, while fishing craft consisted of dugout and plank canoes (Sasidharan 1976a). Fishing activities were limited to inshore waters. Purse-seine fishery never expanded much; a few units operated until the late 1980s and then nearly all collapsed. One, nearly non-functional, unit remains today. On the other hand, lift-net fishery underwent great improvements on size of nets and canoes. The original net measured about 8 m x 8 m (Sasidharan 1976a): to date it can measure 30 mx 15 m. Original catamaran canoes were about 5 m long but can meas- ure 10 m and most are propelled by powerful outboard engines of up to 55 HP. Consequently, the lift-net fishery now competes with purse seining in efficiency (Roest 1992) and has replaced the latter in the pelagic fishery. Meanwhile, the scoop-net fishery has been phased out and beach seining has been banned in Tanzania. This paper discusses representative fish catches in three different periods of the pelagic fishery at Kigoma, with respect to the above developments.
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