Trends in artisanal fisheries in a tropical man-made lake, Taboo hydroelectric lake in Ivory coast of West Africa

Abstract

Changes in Taboo Lake fisheries were studied in order to provide scientific data for sustainable management. Inter-annual evolution of catch, yield, fishing effort, gears efficiency and catch composition were analyzed since the 80s until the 2000s. An Average of annual catch declined dramatically from 386.41 tons (during 1979-1995) to 67.14 tons (during 2004-2006). The corresponding mean yields for these periods were 66.60 kg ha-1 yr -1 and 19.41 kg ha-1 yr -1 respectively. The fishing effort ranged from 3.57 to 4.54 fishers km-2 during 1992-1995 and was 4.39 fishers km-2 in 2004-2006. Landings were dominated by gillnets catches (289.5 kg day -1) accounting for 75.35% of total daily catch. During 2004-2006, Taboo Lake fisheries were mainly supported by two fish groups: Chrysichthys spp. and tilapiine fish. Invasive aquatic plants were found to be the major responsible of the decrease of fishing yields in this lake.