| The most important freshwater food fishes in East Africa have
already vanished from the marketplaces and very nearly from the
planet. Scientists, fishermen, and environmentalists have decried
the loss of Lake Victoria's native species, and others have
praised the introduction of Nile perch. Now the Nile perch
threatens to destroy itself, the lake ecosystem, and a major
source of protein in the midst of the world's fastest-growing
human population. In Lake Victoria, as elsewhere, human welfare
is intimately linked to concern for species conservation and
ecosystem integrity.
The recent history of the fishes of Lake Victoria, East Africa, exemplifies a pace and magnitude of change that is alarming. In 1988, the World Conservation Union Red Book of Endangered Species listed the hundreds of endemic fishes of Lake Victoria under a single heading: "Endangered." The most exuberant expression of vertebrate adaptive radiation in the world is now in the midst of the first mass extinction of vertebrates that scientists have ever had the opportunity to observe, an event as exciting as it is depressing. Thus the most important freshwater food fishes in East Africa have already vanished from the marketplaces and very nearly from the planet. Already researchers like Kaufman, Ochumba, and Basasibwaki are working on projects to help both people and native fish, regardless of what happens to the lake itself. Breeding stocks of 40 haplochromine species, selected to represent most of the different feeding strategies that evolved in the lake, as well as the native ngege are safe in exile at 30 aquariums in the United States and Europe under a World Conservation Union program led by Kaufman. Both Kenya and Uganda are expanding their fish-farming efforts, collecting founder stocks of haplochromines and other native fishes and considering plans to introduce them into smaller lakes and ponds in the region. If the decline of Lake Victoria itself can be halted, isolated bays and inlets may one day be cordoned off with nets as "fish parks" or as farms for valuable commercial species. In addition, a major co-operative effort among all three lakeside countries, Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, was recently launched 'the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Program' which will focus on water quality, land use management, restoration of indigenous food fish, control of Nile perch and water hyacinth, and community-based enforcement. Successful methods developed in pilot zones around the lake during previous years will then be applied to larger areas. Recent advances in our understanding of Lake Victoria : Next Section |
Page Author: Dr Rick T Leah, Univ of L'pool - Contents last reviewed15/12/2005