Abstract: In consequence of what was explained as serious deterioration of fish stock and destruction of fish-breeding grounds, the government decided to enact and implement severe measures that would undoubtedly protect marine resources against destructive fishing methods. In practice, this attempt meant that, all fishers who used gears that were categorised as destructive should either stop from accessing fish from the lake or buy non-destructive gears, a condition that was seemingly impossible for many poor artisanal fishers in Tanzania. This attempt therefore compelled many who were employed in this sector to turn into other alternative means of livelihood for survival. This paper examines the strategies that have been employed by the fishing community in eking out their living as a response to restrictive measures from 2005 to date. The findings in this paper are fundamentally qualitative derived from a survey which was conducted in the Musira Island from September 2015 to June, 2016. In general terms, it was found that, a number of socio-cultural, economic, and illegitimate coping strategies were crafted out of desperation for survival as a result. Victims through their interpretation of the situation they faced and their power to manipulate it, they were somewhat able to endure the shocks initially presented by the government’s intervention. The paper recommends that, for marine resource protection policies to work, before disrupting the dominant fishing livelihood strategy for people in the coast for whichever reasons, attempts to create another culturally informed and consented strategy is vital in ensuring the sustainability of protected resources.