Willard has been fishing on the shores of Lake Malombe in the Republic of Malawi for more than 40 years. The fisher comes from Chipalamawamba, a village in the country’s south. He says that, over the years, environmental degradation and overfishing of the lake have taken a heavy toll on the fish and fortunes of local fishers.
“The fish numbers started dwindling years ago,’’ Willard says. “All the banana plantations were destroyed; the grasses and trees were cut down for building homes, and now the river banks and lake shores are bare. The fish don’t have enough breeding sites.”
With its many lakes, this landlocked African country has a rich fishing tradition and nearly 1.6 million people in lakeside communities depend on fishing for their lives and livelihoods.
But Lake Malombe has seen its fish species disappear and its ecosystem damaged.
Niklas Mattson, FAO’s chief technical officer in Malawi, says several fish species including the popular Chambo, a type of tilapia, have all but vanished in recent years.
“Lake Malombe is on average only three metres deep, and the tilapia build nests on the bottom for breeding. But the nkacha nets, which are the most common, tend to destroy these nests and cause turbidity and that disturbs the fish and their breeding,” says Mattson.
Small-scale fishers are also competing with larger fishers, who have bigger boats and are better resourced with more elaborate fishing gears and nets. This activity is not only decimating fish numbers, it is also damaging the lake’s fish breeding grounds, relates Mattson.