Nile perch weighing 174kgs at Mulungu landing site, Munyonyo, Uganda. Nile Perch is said to have damaged Lake Victoria by eating other fish species. Photo | File
Summary
· Even more laughable, some East African presidents have formed special military units to patrol the...
lake and seize the illegal nets. These days, political desperation to salvage the situation is real. But to save the lake requires more than military intervention or the continued harassment of fishermen in Migingo by Yoweri Museveni’s police.This is the painful story of Lake
Victoria — and there is a question that needs an urgent answer.
How do we undo a colonial mistake
that damaged the Lake Victoria food chain? Forget all the tales you have heard
about illegal fishing nets as the number one contributor to dwindling catches.
Even more laughable, some East
African presidents have formed special military units to patrol the lake
and seize the illegal nets. These days, political desperation to salvage the
situation is real. But to save the lake requires more than military
intervention or the continued harassment of fishermen in Migingo by Yoweri
Museveni’s police.
I have noted that discussions on
Lake Victoria’s dwindling catches skirt around the tragic story of what
happened. In 1954, somebody introduced the Nile perch into Lake Victoria,
which had its indigenous fish variety.
Nile perch (known as mputa in
Uganda) was not native to this lake, whose indigenous species had stabilised in
the last 17,000 years after the lake dried up for some years and then filled up
again. But the desire to have fish for the European markets and sports has now
led to an ecological disaster, a concern that has not been amplified enough.
The change in the Lake Victoria food
chain has been an ongoing debate in environmental journals. Scientists, those
not burying their heads in the sand, say that Lake Victoria is facing an
ecological disaster — thanks to the Nile perch.
At first, the Nile perch was
introduced to some ponds around the lake as part of the colonial government’s
bid to develop fisheries among communities further from the lake. That was
before colonial officials in Uganda secretly introduced the predator to the
lake in 1954. There seems to be no recorded alarm even after Food and
Agriculture Organisation scientists reported that several fingerlings had found
their way into the lake. We know that biologists — especially in Kenya — were
openly opposed to the deliberate introduction of a predator into the lake.
Non-native tilapia
In 1959, once again, the fisheries department in Uganda introduced more Nile
perch into the lake after overriding scientific advice and the concerns of their
colleagues in Kenya and Tanzania.
There are also records indicating
that in May 1962, some 35 fish ranging from 16.0 to 43.5 cm in length were
introduced into the lake, followed by 339 fingerlings in September 1963.
These were brought from Uganda’s
Lake Albert. Finally, eight fish varieties from Lake Turkana were introduced in
1963, bringing the total to 382.
Another experiment carried out in
the 1950s was the introduction of several non-native tilapia, but it seems that
only the Nile tilapia survived.
Previously, the Nile perch had not
reached the lake because the Kabalega and Owen Falls deterred it, and so Lake
Victoria was naturally protected from this predator. Today, Owen Falls, and the
nearby Rippon Falls, are no more after they were submerged in 1953 during the
construction of a power station in at Jinja. But a human error has allowed the
Nile perch to colonise the lake.
It was in the 1980s that the Nile
perch population exploded — to the surprise of scientists. Besides that,
scientists say there were changes in the lake that had evolved from its
previous “oligotrophic state” — meaning a lake with clear waters and little
sediment — to the current “eutrophic state”, which can be described as a
polluted lake with dense plant population. This later state kills more fish.
They have now been asking why it
took Nile perch 20 years to reach this level of domination. By 1984, the
biomass of Nile perch had exceeded all other species, whose numbers had
significantly dwindled. Some species had also disappeared or become extinct.
While the introduction of Nile perch
saw the commercialisation of the lake — and a viable fishing industry was built
around the predator, one question that was never answered was what this
predator would feed on after becoming the dominant species. More so, it was
unpopular.
Indigenous tilapia
In 1982, then-Natural Resources minister of Kenya, Odongo Omamo took
that question to Parliament: “This kind of fish is carnivorous; it feeds on
other smaller fish to the extent that the other smaller species, such as
tilapia, also known as ngege, can hardly be found.”
Omamo complained that Nile perch
grows very fat, “and when it is caught, no one wants to eat it because there is
so much fat. I would like to appeal to the Ministry of Health to come up with a
better way of cooking Nile perch so that it can be edible.”
Omamo’s concern was that the
indigenous fish culture was being replaced. More so, an entire economy could
face ruin.
While the Nile perch, which could
grow to 130 kilogrammes, was meant for export, the indigenous tilapia fish for
the local market was becoming expensive since it was rare.
In 1982, then-Natural
Resources minister Odongo Omamo took that question to Parliament: “This kind of
fish is carnivorous; it feeds on other smaller fish to the extent that the
other smaller species, such as tilapia, also known as ngege, can hardly be
found.” Omamo complained that Nile perch grows very fat, “and when it is
caught, no one wants to eat it because there is so much fat. I would like to
appeal to the Ministry of Health to come up with a better way of cooking Nile
perch so that it can be edible.”
Omamo’s concern was that the
indigenous fish culture was being replaced. More so, an entire economy could
face ruin.
While the Nile perch, which could grow
to 130 kilogrammes, was meant for export, the indigenous tilapia fish for the
local market was becoming expensive since it was rare.
In 1985, a study by Leiden
University raised concerns and provided data indicating that Lake Victoria
would face a catastrophe. That was when Australia wanted to introduce Nile
perch to one of its lakes. The plan was dropped following the Lake Victoria
study.
Today, it is not known how many
species have disappeared from the lake, though some scientists wonder why the
Nile perch managed to co-exist with tilapia in Lake Turkana, Lake Albert and
Lake Chad, and with minor damage to the food chain.
In 1988, the New Scientist tried to
defend the monster fish and quoted some biologists blaming “overfishing with
fine-meshed nets” as the other culprit. Unfortunately, since little can be done
on the Nile perch, we have resorted to the narrative of nets and over-fishing.
In 2008, scientists reported that
the Nile perch, having exhausted all the other species, was increasingly
feeding on their young or small shrimp. In 1988, the World Conservation Union
(IUCN) listed 596 fresh-water fishes in danger of extinction; almost half were
in Lake Victoria.
Fished away to extinction
In the short term, the Nile perch gave us the illusion that a viable fishing
industry was possible with its introduction. However, with its colonisation of
the lake, tilapia became rare and expensive.
The only way out, some scientists
say, would be for the Nile perch to run out of food and decline. That would
give room to other species to thrive. Other scientists suggest that the
predator can be fished away to extinction. How? I don’t know.
When you look at the tussle over
Migingo, it is about the desperation of local fishermen trying to fish from the
last tilapia colonies. What is required is an open discussion and research on
measures to take — in the short term and in the long term to undo the
70-year-old colonial error.
If you have been wondering why
tilapia is so expensive, it is because of this monster — plus the other
pollution factors.
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