Malaria is a serious global health issue, with around 200 million cases per year. As such, great effort has been put into the mass distribution of bed nets as a means of prophylaxis within Africa. Distributed mosquito nets are intended to be used for malaria protection, yet increasing evidence suggests that fishing is a primary use for these nets, providing fresh concerns for already stressed coastal ecosystems. While research documents the scale of mosquito net fisheries globally, no quantitative analysis of their landings exists. The effects of these fisheries on the wider ecosystem assemblages have not previously been examined. In this study, we present the first detailed analysis of the sustainability of these fisheries by examining the diversity, age class, trophic structure and magnitude of biomass removal. Dragnet landings, one of two gear types in which mosquito nets can be utilised, were recorded across ten sites in northern Mozambique where the use of Mosquito nets for fishing is common. Our results indicate a substantial removal of juveniles from coastal seagrass meadows, many of which are commercially important in the region or play important ecological roles. We conclude that the use of mosquito nets for fishing may contribute to food insecurity, greater poverty and the loss of ecosystem functioning.

中文翻译：

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东非预防蚊帐疟疾的有害渔业后果。

疟疾是一个严重的全球性健康问题，每年约有2亿例。因此，已经在蚊帐的大量分发方面付出了巨大的努力，作为非洲境内预防的手段。分布式蚊帐旨在用于疟疾保护，但是越来越多的证据表明，捕鱼是这些蚊帐的主要用途，给已经紧张的沿海生态系统带来了新的关注。尽管研究记录了全球蚊帐捕捞的规模，但尚无关于其捕捞量的定量分析。这些渔业对更广泛的生态系统集合的影响以前没有被研究过。在这项研究中，我们通过检查多样性，年龄类别，营养结构和去除生物量的数量，对这些渔业的可持续性进行了首次详细分析。Dragnet着陆，在莫桑比克北部的十个地点记录了可以使用蚊帐的两种渔具之一，那里经常使用蚊帐捕鱼。我们的结果表明，从沿海海草草甸中大量清除了幼鱼，其中许多在该区域具有重要的商业意义或起着重要的生态作用。我们得出的结论是，使用蚊帐捕鱼可能会加剧粮食不安全，加剧贫困和生态系统功能丧失。