This page offers access to the three fisheries surveys conducted in Lake Malawi during the colonial period.

As well as offering an critical resource for understanding the driving principles and ideas that continued to inform and influence fisheries policy in Lake Malawi long after independence, these surveys also offer significant insights into the social, cultural, economic, and political history of the fishing industry while also offering important insights into the natural history of the lake.

For more details on the surveys, please see our Surveying the Fisheries in Colonial Lake Malawi StoryMap.

Links / Downloads

• C. K. Ricardo Bertram, H. J. H. Borley, & Ethelwynn Trewavas, Report on the Fish and Fisheries of Lake Nyasa (London: Government of Nyasaland, 1942)
• Rosemary H. Lowe, Report on the Tilapia and other Fish and Fisheries of Lake Nyasa, 1945-7 (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1952) – accessed via AquaDocs
• P. B. N. Jackson, T. D. Iles, D. Harding, and G. Fryor, Report on the Survey of Northern Lake Nyasa, 1954-55 by the Joint Fisheries Research Organization (Zomba: The Government Printer, 1963). – accessed via Bibliography of Lake Malawi Biology