Our sole means of transportation for the shoebill study is a fiberglass open boat about 18' long with a 40 hp engine. Two Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers, Mogicis and Ivan, accompany us to and from the boat and while we're cruising the Nile, looking for suitable habitat and shoebillls to observe, film, etc. I pay for fuel and the rangers' salaries for the days we have access to the boat, but the boat/fuel is a limited commodity, as that is needed for regular patrols. Accordingly, we also experience some patrol activity as a routine part of our days in the field. Specifically, the rangers frequently take a few minutes from shoebill time to try and protect the eastern shore of the Nile, where human fishing is forbidden. Basically, we find about 10 cases per day where poachers are catching fish in the restricted water bordering Murchison Falls National Park, which exists largely to protect/preserve animal and plant life from the pressing desires and needs of a burgeoning human population. Human fishing is supposed to be at least 200 meters from the eastern shore...
Of course, the fishermen (and they're all men/boys) know the rules, but violate them intentionally for some reasons that are easy to grasp. The fishing is much better on the eastern shore/protected area than out in the middle of the Nile and/or along the human-populated western shore. Unsurprisingly, the human depredations of fish close to home is more intense, so the western fish populations are constantly depleted. Hippo poop is also a factor. Really. Hippos eat lots of vegetation, absorbing only some of the nutrients and jettisoning the rest (forcefully!), which enriches the west side waters' invertebrate and fish populations. So the fishing is (relatively) good in the forbidden waters.
But fishing near the park has many risks, the rangers being among the mildest. After all, the typical fishing boats in use are sketchy in the extreme, such that one can sometimes see daylight between the boards and bailing is a routine part of travel...moreover, the river has lots of large crocodiles and larger hippos, any one of which is capable of rolling these boats...and many of the people cannot swim (if your only body of water for learning to swim had crocodiles you'd think twice about swimming, too). Finally, the only life vests I've seen on the Nile are the ones in our UWA boat.
UWA patrol activities feel generally Sisyphean. Mostly the rangers "warn" the same fishermen to move away from the park's shore, but this is a game of cat and mouse where there's only one cat. We have the only motorized vessel in the contest, so when we round a corner and the offending fishermen have not been able to paddle behind some bulrushes, they don't bother trying to flee. I assume they listen for the sound of our motor and hide when they can (we sometimes see them trying...), but paddling is slow. Mostly, they get lectured in the local language and suffer a few finger-wags. Sometimes their photos are taken with a ranger cell phone ('evidence' that they've been warned). Only once have I seen any enforcement per se (a throwing net was confiscated from a repeat offender), but the rangers can arrest them and a court appearance can mean serious jail time.
Why does this equilibrium persist? Poverty...magnified by weak government that fails to deliver any real education that might offer alternative means of escape. Fishing is the tradition. And fishing is the only near-term means of putting food on the table. The rickety boats we chastise have only 5-10 small fish dying in the floor, temporarily sustained by river water that has not yet been bailed out: in short, this is not a commercial operation, but only a meal for a family...and this is on the GOOD side of the river!
The rangers know all this, of course. Their job requires them to protect the fish/park, but they are feared greatly by the fishermen. After all, a few weeks (or years, in some cases) in jail is a heavy penalty for the primary bread-winner. So they are conflicted, as you can imagine.
But desperation is desperation. And it's not pretty.
Furthermore, the rangers tell me that some of the west-river poachers are only pretending to be fish poachers to cover for the more serious crime of setting snares in the national park for land mammals like antelopes (oribi, Uganda kob, reedbuck...). These snares are vicious contraptions that put a steel cable around the leg, tightening as the victim struggles. I infer that the animal is subsequently clubbed upon discovery, which is probably done after dark. And while those snares' wires are not strong enough to catch an elephant, they sometimes cost an elephant its trunk(!) if that is the part looped. I've already seen two such trunkless elephants!
Putting oneself in the fake "fishermen's" position, snaring land mammals means crossing a dangerous croc/hippo infested river in a leaky boat with highly illegal snare equipment, entering the costal forest of the park to set snares where many dangerous animals live (e.g., leopards and Cape buffalo), then posing as a fish poacher so you can keep an eye on your snare segts, re-entering the forest after dark to club and tote your catch, then crossing the Nile again with illegal prey when the hippos and crocodiles are most active, risking years in jail if you're caught, etc. all to bring home food! Whatever you can catch...
And preventing all this falls on the shoulders of a few marine rangers who are also just trying to earn a living.
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