Significance Of Lake Malawi

Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Lake Malawi is one of the largest bodies of fresh water in Africa and by volume of water, it is the 8th largest lake in the world!

Lake Malawi is 700 meters deep, considered by some as the 2nd deepest lake in the world. Formed as part of the rift valley, the lake is the most southern of the great lakes in the East African Rift.
Lake Malawi also stretches for 412 miles along the shores of Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. 75km at it’s widest point.
500-1000 different species of fish are found, and most of these fish are found only in Lake Malawi. 90% of these fishes belong to the family called “Cichlid”, which includes Utaka, Mbuna, Mcheni and many other kinds.

HOW WE WORK
We call a meeting to fishermen, communities along the shore of lake , Fisheries Department together to discuss about when not to fish that kind of fish because its breeding time.
The GGSE Monitoring, Control and Surveillance strategy identifies the main threats to sustainability from illegal activity as:
• Use of illegal gears such as beach seines, monofilament nets and undersized gill nets.
• Restrict the minimum size of mesh so that only big fish can be caught
• Fishing in restricted months (bleeding months)
• GGSE we want to discus with fisheries to introduce local fishing permits which will not allow fishermen to move, (e.g. from Nkhata bay to fish in Salima)