When I visited the small community of Wairaka on the north shore of Lake Victoria in Uganda, fishermen there detailed to me how they have been struggling to make their traditional living off the water in recent years. They say a combination of overfishing, illegal fishing, overzealous enforcement of fishing laws, and invasive species threaten their ability to catch enough to pay rent for their homes and boats and other basic expenses.
After setting their nets out overnight, fishermen are now accustomed to returning to shore with just a few fish a day, rather than the up to 20 that used to be common.
“This is the situation now,” Bumba Musasizi, father of an infant daughter, tells me, alluding to the struggle his community has had in earning a living on the lake for the past several years. He netted just two fish on a recent trip, hardly making the money spent on fuel worth it.