Abstract
The study was conducted from June 2023 to December 2023. The objectives of the study were to
assess factors case depletion of Nile tilapia in Lake Hayq. A total of 158 fishers and fishery experts selected randomly from around Lake Hayq were used as respondents for structured questionnaires. Most of the fishers used gillnets with mesh size of 3.5-4 cm stretched mesh size < 8 cm which is the national standard. Among the top five fish depletion factors mesh size 3.5-4 cm nets is the first ranked factor with relative impotence index (0.83) for Nile tilapia depletion. Fishing during reproduction seasons is the second ranked factor with relative impotence index (0.79) while destruction of breeding site is the third ranked cause with relative impotence index (0.76) that is from the different category as the first ranked factor. This implies that three out of the top five critical factors belong to the fishing -related category. Open access was the fourth most severe with relative impotence index(0.75) and most frequently encountered factor in fish depletion in the study area and pollution and discharges oil is the fifth ranked sever factors with relative impotence index(0.73) that affect fish depletion in Lake Hayq. 68% of the changes in fishing depletion could be attributed to the combine effect of the predictor variables. However, 32% of variance is explained by others factors not covered in the study. The model is statistically significant in predicting factors impacting fishing related factors and others related factors in this study since the significance value is .000, which means the p value less than 0.05. All Factors do significantly affect fish resource depletion.