Commercial and Small-Scale Fishing at Lake Kariba: Challenges and the Precarity of Fishers

This chapter explores the commercial and small-scale fishing practices that take place in and around Lake Kariba. The fishing industry is the dominant economic sector at Kariba as it employs more people than any other industry and is also a readily available livelihood option for local residents and migrants. The purpose of commercial fishing is income generation and it is largely the reserve of big companies. Small-scale fishing is practised by individuals and small cooperatives. Small-scale fishers are classified into two categories: gillnetters and rod and line fishers. Socio-economic drivers for these two legal fishing methods are mixed. People either fish for subsistence and sell the surplus or fish for income and keep some fish for subsistence. However, apart from these legal fishing methods, local residents also engage in illegal fishing activities such as using nets with non-regulation mesh sizes and fishing in prohibited zones. Both commercial and small-scale fisheries face many challenges. These challenges are mainly rooted within the materiality of the landscape and to some extent within other socio-economic conditions. Varied fishing activities and methods are impacted by different non-human and human forces at Lake Kariba, including with regard to the profitability and viability of this economic activity. This chapter describes the different forms of fishing at Lake Kariba and the material and non-material challenges affecting fishing. However, the chapter focuses more on the material dimension as it is a decisive factor. The waterscape in its changing and unpredictable form shapes the occurrence of both legal and illegal fishing activities. Large- and small-scale fisheries are shaped differently by waves, strong winds and low or high water volumes, amongst other changing and temporal forms of the waterscape.