Nile Perch
Nile Perch in Lake Victoria
By Andrew .m
Introduction
Lake Victoria is largest lake in Africa, seventh largest in the world by volume. And second largest freshwater lake in the world. The lake is surrounded by three different country’s Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Figure 1 depicts Lake Victoria and the surrounding countries. All three countries share the lake and its resources, but one of the biggest issues is that the governing laws involving the resources and the lake regulations are different in each country. (Lowe-McConnell, 1994) As an economic stand point the lake produces an annual catch of roughly 400-500,000 tons of fish bringing in around US$250,000-500,000. The lake itself has around 2 million people that either directly or indirectly depend on fishing activities to support their lives. Lake Victoria is the head waters to the Nile River.
The Nile perch (Lates niloticus) can be distinguished by their silver coloring and blue tint. They have sharp black eyes which are surrounded by a luminous yellow outer ring. The juvenile Nile perch can be seen with very dark markings beaming from their eyes with extensive dark markings on their body which in time will fade with age. The female Nile perch generally grows larger than the male. Certain bones such as the pre-opercle and pre- orbital are guarded with spines. The Nile perch is known to grow extremely fast during the first year of existence. The growth rate begins to decrease throughout the next four years of life. The Nile perch was introduced into Lake Victoria in the 1950s from lakes Turkana (Kenya) and Albert (Uganda) where it is native. This date is heavily debated. Unlike many introductions, which occur by accident or are made quietly by private citizens, the introduction of Nile perch into Lake Victoria was put in action by the highest levels of the British administration in colonial East Africa. Scientists and ecologist both tried to convince the government that the
By Andrew .m
Introduction
Lake Victoria is largest lake in Africa, seventh largest in the world by volume. And second largest freshwater lake in the world. The lake is surrounded by three different country’s Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. Figure 1 depicts Lake Victoria and the surrounding countries. All three countries share the lake and its resources, but one of the biggest issues is that the governing laws involving the resources and the lake regulations are different in each country. (Lowe-McConnell, 1994) As an economic stand point the lake produces an annual catch of roughly 400-500,000 tons of fish bringing in around US$250,000-500,000. The lake itself has around 2 million people that either directly or indirectly depend on fishing activities to support their lives. Lake Victoria is the head waters to the Nile River.
The Nile perch (Lates niloticus) can be distinguished by their silver coloring and blue tint. They have sharp black eyes which are surrounded by a luminous yellow outer ring. The juvenile Nile perch can be seen with very dark markings beaming from their eyes with extensive dark markings on their body which in time will fade with age. The female Nile perch generally grows larger than the male. Certain bones such as the pre-opercle and pre- orbital are guarded with spines. The Nile perch is known to grow extremely fast during the first year of existence. The growth rate begins to decrease throughout the next four years of life. The Nile perch was introduced into Lake Victoria in the 1950s from lakes Turkana (Kenya) and Albert (Uganda) where it is native. This date is heavily debated. Unlike many introductions, which occur by accident or are made quietly by private citizens, the introduction of Nile perch into Lake Victoria was put in action by the highest levels of the British administration in colonial East Africa. Scientists and ecologist both tried to convince the government that the
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