Climate change: A pointer to increased small-scale fisher drowning deaths

Our stakeholder analysis provides insights into the details underlying the risk factors in fisher drowning death incidents, and potential solutions to mitigate the risks. Fisher drowning death related to bad weather, for example, can be due to ineffective or inaccessible weather warning systems, poverty (insufficient income), low risk perception, or a combination of these factors. Possible mitigation strategies include the development of timely and accurate weather forecasts by the Kenya Meteorological Department and governmental support that ensures boat crews access weather information in a timely manner. Fisher drowning deaths related to boat and equipment-related risk factors (non-use of navi- gation equipment and life jacket, poor boat maintenance) can stem from disregard of safety rules by boat crews, which in turn can be due to poverty, low risk perception, social norms, and beliefs. Risk factors related to boat and safety equipment can also originate from power structures of boat ownership and labor, with boat owners not providing safe boats and safety equipment to save money or simply because of lack of knowledge or motivation. Examples of identified mitigation strategies are training (including by peers), support to boat operators (crews, owners, makers), awareness campaigns, regulation monitoring, evaluation, and enforcement. For BMU and government stakeholders, high level items that affect drowning risk factors include management (e.g., boat registration and licensing), awareness campaigns, monitoring,

evaluation, regulation, enforcement, support to local stakeholders (i.e., boat crew, owners, and makers), and a system to ensure communication between the governments of the three coun- tries bordering Lake Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda). It is worth noting that the needs for training were identified for different levels of stakeholders. Discussion Bad weather was implicated as a cause of drowning deaths in 41.8% of the incidents, with strong winds (46.8%) and rough water conditions (47.5%) often implicated. Fishers may have been caught in unexpected or quickly changing weather conditions or may have gone fishing despite poor weather. Indeed, many fishers have limited savings and face a complex constella- tion of risk calculations, including that income is directly tied to fishing effort. Prolonged Fig 3. Co-occurrence (%) of other risk factors with bad weather. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302397.g003 PLOS ONE Climate change and small-scale fisher drowning deaths PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302397 May 22, 2024 8 / 16