AFRICA'S GREAT RIFT LAKES: RICHES PRESENT AND LOST

by: Andy McGregor, JAS

Do those of you who are African cichlid lovers ever wonder about where these fish are found in the wild? Beyond the obvious fact that they are indeed from Africa, they originate from the incredibly species-rich waters of the great Rift Lakes. The largest of these lakes is Lake Victoria, which in surface area is the world's second largest lake next to Lake Superior, and the smaller but deeper Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. Each of these lakes is home to between 165 and 500 species of cichlids, not to mention non-cichlid fish species.

The Great Rift Lakes also are of utmost importance to the people of this developing region, serving as major sources of food and commerce (subsistence and commercial fishing), drinking and irrigation water, and transport, as well as convenient places to deposit human, agricultural, and industrial waste. Populations in the region are among the fastest growing in the world, and the pressures of human activities have affected all the lakes. As we in North America have seen, we modern-day humans have the capability to modify aquatic environments on a scale and at a rate that are unparalleled in the history of the world. We need look no further than the Great Lakes of the United States and Canada or our large river systems on the west coast to see this.

Man's effects on Africa's Great Rift Lakes has varied tremendously depending on the lake. The pressures of large-scale commercial fishing operations and human and agricultural waste are common to a certain degree at all the lakes. But, whereas Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika still support the rich diversity of fish species for which they are so famous, the cichlids of Lake Victoria are among the most threatened animals on Earth.

The story of what has happened to Lake Victoria is astonishing in its complexity, the rate at which it has occurred, and the horrifying reality that much of what already has been done can never be reversed. It is a story that we all can benefit from hearing because there are lessons in it for us. I'm going to pursue in greater depth just what has happened in Lake Victoria, as well as what is now being done to limit the damage, in a series of articles, one per issue of upcoming newsletters, that I hope will interest others as much as it has me.

© Copyright by Author, All Rights Reserved, 1998.