Gold rush: Fish bladder a new source of wealth to Lake Victoria fishermen

A fisherman removes a swim bladder from a giant Nile Perch at Nambo beach in Bondo, Siaya County. [Isaiah Gwengi/ Standard]

It’s 11am at Nambo beach in Bondo, Siaya County. Three fishing boats have just landed.

The fishermen surge towards Martin Okoth, not to sell him the popular Nile Perch, but its maw, locally known as ‘mondo’.

The maw, also known as swim bladder, is the new gold in the area and has a high demand in lucrative overseas market.

The few locals like Okoth who know this are smiling all the way to the bank. Okoth buys any quantity of Mondo, from as low as 100 grammes.

“I have been in this business for 15 years and I have no plans of leaving it. It feeds my family and educates my children,” he says.

From a fish loader in 2003 to a swim bladder dealer in 2018, it was never an easy journey for the man who couldn’t live off the meagre proceeds.

“In 2003, a local businessman offered me a loan of Sh100,000 to store fish maws in Usenge and I become his supplier. The rest, as they say, is history,” he recalls.

Today, Okoth runs a personal store and is among the few cashing in on the organ. But he still does not fully understand the big fuss about fish maws out there.

Okoth says he was only told it is used to manufacture absorbable suture, the thread used for stitching wounds during surgery. Others say it is a delicacy in China.

Cashing in

“Apart from the uses we know, our customers, who are mostly Indians and Chinese, never tell us what else they use mondo for,” says Okoth.

The bigger the Nile Perch the better the quality of mondo and the more the money it fetches.

However, demand is currently low since Ugandans who usually present a high demand for the fish product no longer buy.

Last week, Sunday Standard visited several fish landing sites to find out about this sensation trade.

“Brokers from as far as Uganda come here for the parts. Indians, who are mostly our clients, refuse to buy our fish if that part is removed,” says Moses Ouma at Usenge beach.

Fishermen who supply Nile Perch to processing companies remove the swim bladder before delivering their catch. However, some factories reject fish supplied without their bladder.

Researchers at the Kenya Maritime and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) say the maw is also used in the production of isinglass, a refining agent in the manufacture of beers and wines.

Fish maws constitute an average of two per cent of processed Nile Perch by-products, with an estimated annual export quantity of 290 Metric Tonnes. 

“Nile Perch swim bladders are exported in covert businesses outside of processing company’s value chain,” said Dr Christopher Aura, a researcher at KMFRI.

Lucrative markets

He says the swim bladder is frozen or sun-dried and exported to the Far East markets of China, Singapore and Hong Kong.

A recent study of swim bladder value chain established a covert trade in fish swim bladder.

The value of the fish maws influence the prices of Nile Perch. A bigger fish means a bigger maw and therefore a higher price.

“Whereas the fish catches are dwindling, demand and compensation for fish maws are growing more prominent over time. The fish swim bladder is a highly prized delicacy among Chinese people, but fish maw from certain species is also closely linked to the fate of the Nile Perch,” reads the report.