This project aims to improve the productivity of Lake Tanganyika’s fishery in Zambia, by securing food resources and improving the health of thousands of villagers in the vicinity of the Nsumbu Tanganyika Conservation Project co-management area. The team is using high-resolution geophysics and limnogeological sampling (sediment cores and dredge samples), detailed echosounding, side-scan sonar, and CHIRP seismic reflection profiling, and providing the scientific foundation for defining coastal “no-catch” zones. These zones will be monitored and maintained by local villagers, allowing the health and productivity of fish stocks to recover. This GWB project came out as a result of the past habitat management project’s success by the same project lead in [Tanzania](https://seg.org/About-SEG/Geoscientists-Without-Borders/Projects/detail/tanzania-1).

In the summer of 2022, the team visited Nsumbu National Park in Zambia for the first time. Prior to commencing surveying on the Nsumbu Tanganyika lake (above photo), the team held meetings with Zambia Ministry of Fisheries, Nsumbu National Park officials, and Frankfurt Zoological Society representatives to determine priority areas for benthic substrate mapping and sediment pollution analysis. It was decided that the highest priority area for 2022 was Nkamba Bay, due to reports of human activities affecting that area of the park. The team targeted their efforts by collecting >50 km (approx. 31.1 miles) of soundings (using a single beam echosounder) and sidescan sonar data, along with 70 lake floor sediment samples. The evaluation of sediment pollution is yet to be completed, as collection of sediment cores and radiochemical analyses will proceed next year (2023). To learn more about this project, click [here](https://seg.org/About-SEG/Geoscientists-Without-Borders/Projects/detail/geophysical-habitat-mapping-for-fisheries-conservation-at-nsumbu-tanganyika-zambia).