The Pros And Cons Of The Nile Perch

The following paper is on the Nile perch, it’s history, it’s introduction to the Lake Victoria, why it was introduced to Lake Victoria and the pros and cons on its introduction, and is their anything trying to stop any negative impacts. The Nile perch also known as Lates niloticus (Lowe), a very popular fish in Africa (Lowe 2000). In 1980, a mass increase in the population of the Nile perch occurred., Tthis increase in the population fish caused other aquatic life to in the lake to take a dramaticallydramaticly decrease in population (Cite). The Nile perch is a freshwater fish of the Latidae family. They can reach up to 6 feet long, and weigh over 500 pounds. This fish dramatically boosted the fishing industry. In the 1950s’ the Nile perch was introduced into Lake Victoria. The introduction of this fish caused nearly 200 endemic species in Africa to go extinct (Cite). 25 years later the population of this fish boomed. The Nile perch feeds off of fishes, insects, crustacea, and

The Nile perch became an economic disaster. To store Nile perch properly they need to be smoked due to their high fat content. This caused extra firewood to be cut down and resulted into deforestation. Nile perch has disrupted the food web in Lake Victoria. The fish also contained high levels of salmonella which caused hundreds illnesses in the area. The fish left a impact on the fishing community. As the Nile perch population grew and other native fish population went down it affect certain fishermen. Since this fish was growing to such great sizes, more fishermen were needed, thus creating more jobs. Although it did help other get jobs it cost more to send fishermen out because of the size of boat needs to be crafted and rods and nets. All in all this fish had many consequences with its introduction. For all the negatives caused, is there anything trying to prevent these