Case Analysis of Lake Victoria

Case Analysis of Lake Victoria

Nic Pedersen

Science 362

December 13, 2010

Steve Schroeder

Abstract

Lake Victoria is the world’s second largest fresh water lake and is in eastern Africa. Lake Victoria is home to a unique ecosystem that contains a species of colorful fish called cichlids, (pronounced sik’ lids). Lake Victoria at one time was home to around 400 different species of cichlid, and it is this fish population that would come to support 30 million humans in the surrounding country side. Because of humans tampering with the lakes ecosystem in various ways, the cichlid population would become almost completely extinct. The following paragraphs will address the consequences of human activities, how science complicated the problem, how science may have helped the problem, and alternative solutions to solve the problem.

Case Analysis of Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria at one time contained upwards of 400 different species of cichlid fish. The cichlid fish maintained the complete ecological balance of Lake Victoria. Each species of the cichlid lived in different depths of the lake and provided a different ecological need to balance the lake ecology. When the local human population started large-scale fishing of the cichlid, the ecological balance of the Lake started to deteriorate.

Human Activities

30 million human inhabitants live around Lake Victoria and rely on the fish population to provide the protein needed for survival. Due to the fishing industry, “the aquatic community in Lake Victoria is altered from what it was 50 years ago” (Raven, Berg, & Hassenzahl, 2010). The over fishing of the algae eating cichlids has caused the algae to grow at an uncontrolled rate. When the algae dies the decomposition process uses up the oxygen causing the lower portion of the lake to become...