Alleviating poverty in small-scale fisheries requires a clear understanding of what poverty means. On the whole, different perspectives and strategies have been used to understand and address poverty. These strategies have been grounded in an understanding of poverty as a straightforward economic problem. Moreover, a number of these strategies and perspectives have one way or another been grounded in the understanding that poverty has to do with low incomes and expenditure. However in reality, poverty presents itself as a more complex problem. This paper, therefore, explores an understanding of poverty that goes beyond the income-expenditure nexus. Based on empirical information from Lake Victoria Tanzania, the paper discusses two issues, first, that poverty should be understood from an ecological, social and institutional context and secondly, that poverty alleviation involves a dilemma and a wicked problem.