Firstly, fishermen never only fish. Survival is not only based on fishing, but on a number of livelihood strategies, all complementary to their fishing. Fishermen always have contact with agricultural groups, or work on their own fields. Trade is highly important to gain access to goods not available in a maritime environment. Fish is a protein-rich food, but it must be accompanied by other staple foods.

So, while fishing may be the main source of food and income, it is never the only one. In particular, fishing follows tides, seasons, available materials and geographical features. Tides determine when you can go out or come back, as a high tide is often needed to clear the reef-entrance. Tides also determine which site is easily reached, and what fish you’ll find. Seasons determine large current systems and their temperature. In the islands, this determined whether the traders or slave raiders would come, or go. For a fisherman, the season decides whether he can go out at all, or whether the harvesting or maintenance season has arrived, or, in former times, whether the trading season had arrived.

Materials are essential for building a boat, making baskets or nets, ropes, storage, repairing, etc. Without the right kind of wood, no boat can be built, and without the right kind of net, no fish would be caught. This again makes trade necessary, or the extent to which either fishing or farming is the main livelihood.

Lastly, geographical features are the blueprint of the oceans’ population. Fish have preferred habitats, and sandy, rocky, sloping, shallow or deep sea bottoms support different fish populations. Geographical features not only determine how and what fishing is done, but also the possibility of other livelihoods besides fishing: farming needs good soil, sheltering trees and shade etc.

The waSwahili fish in various ways. Setting nets in deep water, line fishing and current-depending funnel-basket fishing are popular, partly because of the good catch but also because they are least dangerous. Ngalawas (small sailing boats with side boards – very fast and unstable) are used to sail short distances and check on nets and baskets. The bigger boats, like Mashuas and Jahazis, are used for longer distances, cargo and trade. All boats with a typical lateen sail are called “Dhow”.

Men and women both practise fishing, but segregated. Men go out, outside the reef, and catch fish with nets, lines etc. or do spearfishing. Most important is that men use boats to go, women do not.

Women can, if the geography permits, hunt for octopi on the reef when the tide is low. They also “collect” fish with all women forming an “ushirika” : in low water, preferably close to the reef and with some coral humps, women form a circle; they then simply make a lot of noise and keep the fish inside their circle. The women move inward, the circle gets smaller and smaller, and the fish get scooped up, literally. These small fishes, daggaa, caught in this way, are divided by the women of a circle and taken home; they do not have to share them with their household and usually fry them straightaway. No tools are required other than some buckets and sometimes shoes (coral rag are painful)

Men go out any time the tide permits. Usually a boat is owned by a group of men, the ushirika. Nets, engines, boats and repairs are all covered by the ushirika. Sometimes old men are still part of one financially and so, although they do not go out (daily) anymore, they still have a right on the catch. One captain, one helmsman, and crew (senior and junior). A catch is divided between all, the captain having first choice, down the crew, and eventually everybody gets equal shares. The catch can either be sold at the fish auction, or taken home to (various ) family members. The women then cook, and are in this way equally influenced by the tides and seasons: their daily rhythm and when they can go to work on the fields, is based on the ever changing tidal tables and their husbands’ return. Whether the food is enough remains a daily question in certain seasons.  

The maritime environment is changing rapidly worldwide. Pollution and climate changes have a severe impact on the animal life of the oceans, but also on the life of fishermen, who depend on the continuation of currents, nutrition, temperatures etc. Fishermen are often accused of being old fashioned and resistant to change, even of carrying on a destructive way of living. Most fishermen are very aware of their relationship and dependency on the natural environment for their livelihood, although his might be expressed in ways that seem ignorant.