Marketing and Livelihood Contribution of Fishermen in Lake Tana, North Western Part of Ethiopia

Fishery industry provides a vital source of food, employment, recreation, trade and economic well-being for people throughout the world. Fishery is the most important livelihood option for the inhabitants. It is threatened with problems of overexploitation, environmental degradation and consequently unrecovered resources resulting in loss of its potentials. These resources, although renewable, are not infinite and need to be properly managed, if their contribution to the nutritional, economic and social well-being of the growing world population is to be sustained. 

Ethiopia depends on the inland waters for the supply of fish as a cheap source of animal protein. It has a number of lakes and rivers with substantial quantity of fishstocks. The total area of the lakes and reservoirs stands at about 7000 to 8000 km2 and the important rivers stretch over 7000 km in the country.Lake Tana contains 28 types of fish species, from this 21 are endemic and it is the home of a variety Labeobarbus species. But, still there are only three types of fish species that joined the market. These are the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, the African catfish, Clarias gariepinus and Labeobarbus species.