The Impacts of Introduced Fish and Aquatic Macrophytes on the Ecology and Fishery Potential of Lake Victoria, Kenya
Year: 2024
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Fish have been deliberately introduced into new ecosystems as a management tool, to argument overfished native stocks, to occupy vacant niches, and to create lucrative commercial fisheries. Lake Victoria has witnessed successful introductions of predatory Nile perch, Lates niloticus and four Tilapiine species (including Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, Tilapia zilii, and Oreochromis leucostictus). These introductions have negatively and positively impacted the fishery potential and ecology of native fisheries in the lake. The predation of native species by the voracious Nile perch has contributed to decimation and virtual disappearance of over 300 species of Haplochromines. In addition, competition for feeding and breeding areas and interspecific hybridization between exotic O. niloticus and the native Tilapiines have also yielded undesirable results such as disappearance of native Oreochromis esculentus. The most successful invasive plant introductions have been water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, Nile cabbage, Pistia stratiotes, and dense waterweed, Egeria densa. Proliferation of water hyacinth has led to increased shading and turbidity. The introduced species have manifested more pronounced deleterious effects on the native fisheries and their ecology in Lake Victoria. Therefore, future introductions of new species should be based on sound scientific research in order to minimize their unprecedented impacts in the new ecosystems.
Source: Environmental sciences
Institution: Kisii University
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4390942879