Kenyan Fishers Face Increased Drowning Risk From Climate Change

by Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell University

Fatal drownings are a big risk for small-scale fishers on Africa’s largest lake, with many of those deaths attributed to bad weather—conditions that are likely to worsen with climate change, according to a new study.

Lake Victoria—bordering Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda—is heavily fished by some 200,000 fishers, in spite of frequent severe thunderstorms and its reputation as one of the most dangerous bodies of water in the world.

These findings are especially concerning considering that thunderstorms, wind and rain are predicted to become more intense and up to 10 times more frequent by the end of the century, the authors note in the study, published in PLOS ONE.

“Drowning deaths are really a neglected risk factor,” said Kathryn Fiorella, assistant professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health in the College of Veterinary Medicine and a co-corresponding author of the study. The other co-corresponding author is Ranaivo Rasolofoson, a postdoctoral researcher, formerly in Fiorella’s lab, and currently at Duke University.

“The main goal of our work was to understand what are the risk factors that people see contributing to drowning deaths,” Fiorella said.

On top of climate issues, overfishing has reduced commercial Nile perch populations over the last few decades, the authors wrote. Fishers now focus predominantly on sardine-like omena, which are found far offshore and must be fished for at night, and attracted using lights. The shift has made fishers more vulnerable to drowning, since thunderstorms are more likely to occur at night, when visibility is low, making rescues far more challenging.

Low and moderate-income fishers fish to provide for their families, which pushes them to venture out even in poor weather conditions. When fishers drown, their loss leads to heartbreak and creates far-reaching negative socio-economic consequences for their households.

Read the entire story herehttps://phys.org/news/2024-05-kenyan-fishers-climate.html