Luangwa River Valley

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I recently returned from a hunting trip to the Luangwa River Valley in Zambia and I�d hoped it would be a fishing trip as well, where I could have fished for tigerfish. The hunting trip was successful for a variety of game but I was to find the river which flows into the famous Zambezi River was basically devoid of fish. There are a few small villages spread out near the river and it is suspected that uncontrolled subsistence fishing had wiped out all fish species except for a few small fish in the 1� to 3� size range. The villagers were using funnel fish traps to catch small 1� to 2� fish which they dried in the sun. There where poles for larger fish traps that spread the complete width of medium-sized tributaries to the Luangwa in times of higher river flows. I found this small piece of discarded gillnet pictured below which has a stretch mesh of 7/8�, which is to catch very small fish.

Never was the message of proper fisheries management more evident to me and the stark reality of uncontrolled fishing. In sharp contrast the game species were plentiful and to no small effort by game scouts armed with AK-47�s that are constantly on anti-poaching patrols, which are funded by visiting hunters license fees. Protein is a scarce resource to the tiny villagers and it was nice to see that the game scouts have organized a distribution system to provide meat to the villagers that visiting hunter�s harvest. My friends and I were able to donate approximately 4,000 pounds of meat to the program from cape buffalo and other species, which was much appreciated. One father and his two sons we met on the edge of the forest while we were working on a waterbuck told us he and his sons had not had a piece of meat in 8 months. We are very fortunate here in the United States and hopefully through good resource management our wonderful resources will be in place for future generations to enjoy.