CrayFish, a fish specie in form of a scorpion is caught in Lake Rutoto formerly known as ‘Nkugute’ located in Rubirizi District along Bushenyi-Kasese Road.
The lake shaped like a map of Africa, is one of the mysterious fifty-two crater lakes in Queen Elizabeth National Park, according to Asiimwe Sowedi, a fisherman at Nkugute, the lake is situated beneath mountains like Kantungu, Maramagambo, Rwemitagu, and Ruraama.
Asiimwe says this type of fish is the most common in the lake apart from Tilapia and other types of fish which Asiimwe and others rely on and are able to raise at least Sh20,000 on a good day of fishing under their fisheries Group called Engaara.
According to Erisa Arinaitwe, the Assistant Fisheries Officer at Rutoto Sub-County, the CrawFish is a delicious product highly consumed by Asians in Uganda and a few Ugandans.
“CrayFish is highly consumed by the Chinese in Kampala, it survives in swampy and isolated areas with cold water, and has so far been discovered in Lake Bunyonyi and Lake Nkugute. It has a potential market in Asian countries like China, Korea, Japan Malaysia among others,” he said.
However, there is still a lot of research being carried out by the government on this fish specie. It seems the crayfish quite like it in Africa because they multiplied into East Africa.
In the Lake Bunyonyi area, they actually left the locals a little overwhelmed. They aren’t part of the traditional diet, they were initially just seen as a nuisance & only used as an abundant source of livestock feed or fish bait.
Commonly known as the Louisiana crayfish and also known as the red swamp, the crayfish, according to the National Geographic News, are widely distributed in lakes and other bodies of water throughout Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and Egypt, Zambia, Seychelles, and Mauritius.
As part of connecting with communities, Bravo Shoes Community Support Organization always tours different areas of where our children come from, to appreciate the beauty of Uganda and also train our children to connect with nature and appreciate life and our environment.