Lake Victoria and the Nile Perch

During this semester for one of my classes, we watched the movie Darwin's Nightmare. The movie was about the country of Tanzania and their biggest export: the Nile Perch. To many people, they think that Tanzania is comparatively a better country in Africa because of their export. Unfortunately, this is far from the truth of the conditions in the country. Tanzania is in fact in a famine though there are million of fish that can feed the hungry. It makes a person wonder why this is occurring. The answer the question is greed.

In the early 1970's, someone brought in the Nile perch and decided to release the fish in Lake Victoria. The Nile perch is an aggressive fish that eats all other fish. This invasive species tragically disturbed the ecosystem and killed all other living organism in the lake. It not only killed endemic species but also degraded the lake’s environment by lowering the oxygen level in the water.

Fishing is the lifeline for many of Tanzanians. The perch became an export mainly to Europe and Japan. This gave jobs to many fishermen. Millions of pounds of fillets were exported annually to these foreign countries. The demand for the fillet rose making the price of the fish expensive for locals to buy. Many of the fishermen could not afford to keep the fish for themselves in fear of being killed by white factory owners who shipped the fish. Instead, locals eat the leftovers from the factories that are no more than rotting bones.

This ecological disaster could have been prevented if government officials had laws about importation of plants and animals that was enforced. Unfortunately, in these countries, enforcing laws that take away from the economy is not priority. People in these third world countries are dying because of developed countries wanting to eat exotic food. The U.N. needs to step in to help fight for the voice of the people who are starving that do not have enough power to create a change. Restoring the lake the habitat before the perch was introduced will now be a dream that will never come true because of one idiot wanting to experiment. One person's action virtually changed a whole country.


Reference:

Hubert Sauper. Darwin's Nightmare. Homevision: DVD, 2007.