Overfished.

Massive population growth, overfishing and the effects of climate change are putting Lake Malawi under stress.

With an estimated 700 to 800 cichlid species, many of which are found only here and nowhere else in the world, Lake Malawi is one of the world’s most species-rich ecosystems and is the third largest and second deepest lake in Africa.

Environmental degradation is disrupting this fragile ecosystem, and overfishing is making it ever harder to land a catch. The latest figures show that fish stocks in the Lake have already declined by up to 93 percent and that overfishing is driven by the demand of a rapidly growing population, which grew from 2.95 million in 1950 to 19.89 million in 2021, according to UN Statistics.

The dwindling fish stocks threaten the livelihoods of about 60,000 Malawians directly employed as fishermen and a further 350,000 who are involved in fish processing, distribution and associated trades.

The once busy drying racks in Monkey Bay often stand empty and the surrounding fishing areas are fiercely protected from fishermen arriving from other parts of the lake in the hope of landing a decent catch.