Nile Perch, Trade and Environment
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CASE NUMBER: 206 CASE MNEMONIC: PERCH CASE NAME: Nile Perch, Trade and Environment A. Identification 1. The Issue In forty years or less, virtually all of the natural, biological "wealth" unique to Lake Victoria has been destroyed. At one time the lake contained over 400 endemic species of haplochromines whose extraordinary diversity and speed of evolution were inspiring to scientists concerned with "the forces that create and maintain the richness of life everywhere."1 Today, a mere handful of species exists, threatened on one hand by a fearsome enemy - the Nile perch (Lates niloticus) - and on the other by the lake's changing conditions. 2. The Description Due to the presence of the Nile perch, the natural balance of the Lake Victoria ecosystem has been disrupted. The food chain is being altered and in some cases, broken, by the indiscriminate eating habits of the Nile perch. The subsequent decrease in the number of algae-eating fish allows the algae to grow at an alarming rate, theregby "choking" the lake. The increasing amounts of algae, in turn, increase the amount of detritis (dead plant material) that falls to the deeper portions of the lake before decomposing. As a byproduct of this decompostion, the oxygen levels in the deeper layers of water are being depleted. Without oxygen, any aerobic life (such as fish) cannot exist in the deeper portions of the lake, forcing all life to exist within a narrow range of depth. In this way, the Nile perch has degraded the diverse and thriving ecosystem that was once Lake Victoria. The abundance of aquatic life are not the only dependents of Lake Victoria. More than thirty million people in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania rely on the lake for its natural resources. The fishing industry, in particular, is suffering. With traditional food sources all but extinct, and nets continuously damaged from the sheer force of the Nile perch, local fisheries have had to abandon their work. The costs of scarce wood that is burned to dry the Nile perch and of large processing plants that are built to prepare the fish for market preclude many fisheries from entering the Nile perch market. Only fisheries with large financial resources have been able to switch to catching the Nile perch. Given time, however, the supply of Nile perch will diminish as its food supply dwindles, making these fisheries unsustainable. The following is the story of Lake Victoria and the results of an historic meeting in which scientists, resource managers, and policy makers came together to create an agenda to rehabilitate it. Lake Victoria's ecology and natural resource base has been dramatically altered through the introduction of the Nile perch (Lates niloticus). In the 1950s, a proposal to increase fish catches in the lake by introducing the Nile perch was adamantly opposed by scientists who feared that the lack of a natural predator for the fish would result in the imminent destruction of the lake's bountiful ecosystem. Despite the controversy, a colonial fisheries officer was ordered to clandestinely put the Nile perch into the portion of the lake that is in Uganda.2 Thereafter it was introduced intentionally in both 1962 and 1963. By 1964 the Nile perch was recorded in Tanzania, by 1970 it was well established in Kenya, and by the early 1980s it was abundant throughout Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, the three countries surrounding Lake Victoria. Having no natural predators in the lake and a plethora of food, the Nile perch flourished, often reaching up to 250 kgs., forcing it to eat constantly to sustain itself. Such eating habits are no longer sustainable. The Nile perch has caused mass extinctions among haplochromine populations. With little available food sources remaining, the Nile perch has taken to cannabalism with the larger fish feasting on the smaller ones. Hundreds of endemic species that evolved under the special conditions offered by the protection of Lake Victoria have been lost due to extinction, and several more are still threatened. Their loss is devastating for Lake Victoria; the fields of ecology, genetics, and evolutionary biology; and more evidently, for the local fisheries. Local fisheries once depended on catching the tilapias, catfishes, carps, and lungfishes that comprise the local diet. Today, the compositions and yields of such fish catches are virtually negligible. Extensive fish kills, Nile perch, loss of habitat, and overfishing have caused many fisheries to collapse and many protein sources to be unavailable at the market for local consumption. Few fisheries have been able to make the switch to catching the Nile perch which requires a significant amount of capital resources. Unlike traditional fish catches, the Nile perch must be dried over a fire; relying on large amounts of scarce wood for fuel has led to an increasing rate of deforestation. After drying, the fish is either transported to the local markets or prepared for export. Selling Nile perch at the local markets is not the most profitable option for the fisheries. One explanation is that its unpopularity has kept it from being fully integrated into the local diet. A second explanation is that there are few fisheries with the technology, capital, and infrastructure to move the fish further than local markets, let alone export them, so local market prices are kept relatively low by the surplus of supply over demand. A small number of processing plants have been established to filet, freeze, and prepare the Nile perch for export to Europe and Israel where it will receive a higher market value. In Kenya, Israelis were snuck in to assist with the building of processing plants. 54.9% of their export volume went to Israel and 22.8% to Spain in 1987.3 General lack of control over the processors and exporters is resulting in the heavy exploitation of the Nile perch without any concern to the sustainability of the fisheries. An important off-shoot of this problem is that the socio-economic characteristics of the fisheries populations are changing as the inequalities of economic opportunities increases, creating a widening gap between those with access to capital resources and those without. Researchers, conservationists, and policy makers met in Jinja, Uganda in 1992 to discuss options to rehabilitate Lake Victoria. Several groups were convened to prioritize research needs and develop recommendations. The following is a comprehensive list of issues the groups concerned themselves with during this period: a. riparian wetland ecotones b. fish biology, management, and conservation c. fisheries management d. biodiversity and conservation e. socioeconomics f. fishery policy, management, and socio-economics g. commodity systems and the dynamics of capital h. fisheries management and extension i. immobility and persons at risk j. nutrition and fisheries k. fisheries regulation and development l. limnology and environment At the conclusion of the meeting a long and detailed list of resolutions was compiled. Resolutions important to this case include: a. captive propagation of native species of food fish; b. restoration and rehabilitation of indigenous stocks; c. overfishing of Nile perch in specified areas; and d. expansion of aquaculture to help meet basic needs. More importantly, the decision was made to combine research, disseminate information, enforce regulations, and coordinate fisheries development and management among the three riparian states. 3. Related cases BALLAST Case TILAPIA Case WALLEYE Case SALMON Case SALMON2 Case MUSSEL Case APPLE Case FLORIDA Case Lake Victoria's battle with the Nile Perch has its parallels in the struggles of Lake Erie with Zebra Mussles and Lake Malawi with Talapia. In each case, the foreign species has been introduced into the lake and its prosperity has adversely affected the natural balance of its host. Consequently, it has also disrupted the fishing industries and impacted the fishing community both economically and socially. Key words: 1) Lake Victoria 2) Nile perch 3) Biodiversity 4. Draft Author: Ellen Grosman 5. Discourse and stage: DISagreement and Allege 6. Forum and scope: KENYA and REGION It is a domestic problem that naturally encompasses three countries. Scientists from all over the world, rather than legislative bodies, have been the key actors in researching, designing, and implementing conservation plans and strategies. They are involved at the request of the Fisheries Research Institutes of the riparian states of the Lake Victoria Basin. A Lake Victoria Fisheries Commission has been established to implement and sustain management and research. 7. Decision breadth More than seventy scientists, conservationists, and ministers of fisheries attended the 1992 conference in Jinja, Uganda to develop a research agenda to face the challenges of Lake Victoria's ecosystem. 8. Legal standing The culmination of research and workshops is an action plan for management and conservation of Lake Victoria. 9. Geography a. Geographic domain: Africa (the Nile) b. Geographic site: East Africa (EAFR) c. Geographic impact: Kenya 10. Sub-national factors: no 11. Habitat: TROPical 12. Type of measure: Regulatory Standard [REGSTD] 13. Impact: INDirect 14. Resource impact a: Directly related: yes FISH b: Indirectly related: no caught in the nets) c: Not related: no d: Related to process: yes DEFORestation 15. Product type: Fish Fish is sold fresh and as frozen filets. 16. Industry output: The total value of the Nile Perch is nearly three hundred million US dollars per year.4 Nile perch value Total industry value Kenya 114648 (KSHS '000) 237333 (KSHS '000) Tanz. 114525 (TSHS '000) 263838 (TSHS '000) Uganda n/a n/a 5 In both Kenya and Tanzania the Nile perch constituted about one-half of the total industry value in 1986. At April 1993 exchange rates of approximately 66 KSHS per dollar and 500 TSHS per dollar this converts to: Nile perch value Total industry value Kenya USD 1,737,090 USD 3,595,954 Tanz. USD 229,050 USD 527,676 Uganda n/a n/a It is impossible to quantify how the amount of people employed in the fisheries has been affected by the Nile Perch. Statistical information from the respective countries, if it exists, is inaccurate, outdated, and does not account for the informal sector. The Information Counselors at the Kenyan and Ugandan Embassies hesitantly offered rough estimates, whereas at the Tanzanian Embassy no guesses were hazarded. Kenya: Fisheries employment around Lake Victoria was said to be 3,000 in the formal sector and 20,000-30,000 in the formal and informal, collectively.6 Uganda: In the entire country, the fisheries are said to employ 5,000 formally and 20,000-40,000 collectively, in the formal and informal sectors.7 17. Impact: High 18. Industry sector: FOOD 19. Exporters and Importers: Kenya and Israel 20. Environmental problem types: SPLS (species loss-sea) 21. Name and number of species: hundreds are involved It is estimated that before the introduction of the Nile perch there existed approximately 400 haplochromine cichlid species and 40 non-cichlid species, many of which were endemic. Today, no one knows just how many have survived. "Haplochromines have nearly vanished, with at least half the fauna feared extinct. Table fishes [tilapias, catfishes, carps, lungfish] have declined sharply, with the most important among them, the ngege (Oreochromis esculentus), extinct but for a few scattered populations in time lake basin ponds and reservoirs. Even catches of the introduced Nile perch, now the mainstay of the fishery, have shown signs of falling off."8 22. Resource impact: HIGH Lake Victoria is running through its life-cycle at a rate approximately four times greater than what should be its natural rate. The Nile perch are devouring all but a few species of fish, including its own. With no small fish to feed on algae, its growth is "choking" the top of the lake and its decay is depleting the lower levels of oxygen. Due to the relative economic immobility of persons in the fishery, low returns to catches does not prevent exploitation. Rather, it is likely that without alternatives, they will fish to commercial extinction. In Kenya, where even the littlest minnows have been overfished, people are forced to turn to shrimp for purposes of economics and nutrition. The export of Nile perch has driven its cost well beyond the means of locals. Combined with limited numbers of fish in the local markets, locals are deprived of an important source of protein. 23. Urgency of problem: LOW 24. Substitutes: CONS 25. Culture: yes 26. Human rights: no 27. Trans-border issue: yes 28. Relevant literature Baskin, Yvonne. "Africa's troubled waters: fish introductions and a changing physical profile muddy Lake Victoria's future." BioScience. v.42, pp.476-81. Chamberlain, Joan. "Oxygen loss threatens Lake Victoria." New Scientist. v.135, p.8. Kaufman, Les. "Catastrophic Change in Species-Rich Freshwater Ecosystems: The lessons of Lake Victoria." BioScience. 4.42, pp.846-58. ------------. personal communication. 1 March 1994. "Nile perch eats all and sundry in its new home." New Scientist. v.109, p.24. Okie, Susan. "The race to save a dying lake." The Washington Post, July 7, 1992, A:1:1. Payne, Ian. "A lake perched on piscine peril." New Scientist. v.115, pp.50-54. "People, Fisheries, Biodiversity, and the Future of Lake Victoria." Proceedings of the Lake Victoria Ecosystem Workshop held in Jinja, Uganda, Aug. 17-21, 1992. Boston: Edgerton Research Laboratory of the New England Aquarium, 1993. Reynolds, J. Eric. "Socio-economic effects of the evolution of Nile perch fisheries in Lake Victoria: a review." Rome, 1988. FAO ENDNOTES 1"People, Fisheries, Biodiversity, and the Future of Lake Victoria." Proceedings of the Lake Victoria Ecosystem Workshop held in Jinja, Uganda, Aug. 17-21, 1992. (Boston: Edgerton Research Laboratory of the New England Aquarium, 1993). 2Interview with Les Kaufman, Head of Edgerton Research Laboratory of the New England Aquarium, Boston, 1 March 1994. 3Reynolds, J. Eric, "Socio-economic effects of the evolution of Nile perch fisheries in Lake Victoria: a review," (Rome, 1988, FAO). 4"People, Fisheries..." 5Reynolds. 6Interview with William Meda, Information Counselor of Kenyan Embassy in Washington DC, 13 April 1991. 7Interview with Nimisha Madazani, Information Counselor of Ugandan Embassy in Washington DC, 13 April 1991. 8"People, Fisheries..."