Special East Africa Prize Winner: The Selector

The Selector, a device that reduces the bycatch of goldfish in the Lake Victoria pellegrin fishery, earned a Special East Africa Prize in the International Smart Gear Competition.

The goldfish of Lake Victoria, aside from being a rare and highly prized aquarium species, are a main source of food for the Nile perch - one of the lake's biggest and most abundant fish. But the goldfish population here has dwindled to dangerously low levels. Actions are needed to prevent the species from going extinct in the second-largest freshwater lake in the world.

Developed by Moi University staff members in Kenya, the Selector reduces goldfish bycatch by fishermen targeting pellegrin fish. Easily attached to fishing mesh already used by the fishermen, the Selector is a rectangular-shaped plastic device that is painted a brilliant white on the outside and black on the inside. Rectangular openings in the front act as water inlets. The back of the device has wedge-shaped openings, and the lower side of the gear is hollow to create a vacuum. The water inlets create powerful water currents that prevent the minute pellegrin fish from escaping the mesh, while the wedge-shaped openings allow goldfish to escape.

This fishing gear takes advantage of the common feeding behaviors of goldfish and pellegrin fish - who swim and feed together - and their varying reaction to danger. Both fish are attracted to light, which is how they are caught by fishermen in the mesh, but pellegrin fish get confused in light and remain docile in the mesh, whereas goldfish become restless and try to escape. By instinct, goldfish look for dark places to hide when they are threatened, so they gravitate toward the dark environment inside the device that leads to their escape through the wedge-shaped openings.

Since the technology utilizes plastic to fabricate the gear, local fishermen can be trained to make their own Selectors and fasten them to their existing fishing nets. This makes the device readily available for use, greatly increasing its effectiveness.

Proven Results
In real-time trials on Lake Victoria, the Selector proved to be instrumental in reducing bycatch of goldfish. In testing aboard the pellegrin fishing vessel the MV Nyayo, goldfish bycatch was reduced by 61 percent. In testing aboard a vessel owned by the Kenya Marine & Fisheries Services, goldfish bycatch was reduced by 56 percent.

Benefits to Fishermen and Oceans

• The device is cheap and easy to fabricate
• The device is made out of plastic - a readily available material
• When fastened properly on the fishing mesh, the device helps avoid mesh entanglement, thereby increasing the lifespan of the mesh
• The device is light and easy to carry, which will encourage fishermen to adopt it
• Tests have shown that the Selector reduces goldfish bycatch by more than 50%

The Winning Team
The Selector was created by three staff members at Moi University in Kenya: Samwel Biwott Bikens, Sammy Kipkemoi and Arusei Chebet. Biwott - the principal researcher for the project - helps manage the university's fish farm, which produces tilapia and pellegrin fish originally imported from Lake Victoria. Kipkemoi and Chebet are lab technicians in the university's fisheries department.

Biwott got the inspiration for creating this device during one of his trips to Lake Victoria, where he witnessed fishermen returning from an all-night fishing expedition. As the fishermen unloaded their catch for sorting, Biwott noticed the goldfish bycatch.

Upon his return to the university, he met with Kipkemoi and Chebet to find a way of reducing the unnecessary catch of goldfish and prevent the species' extinction from the lake. The trio came up with the idea of the Selector after carefully studying the behaviors of pellegrin and goldfish at the university's Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences lab.