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Dynamics of the haplochromine cichlid fauna and other ecological changes in the Mwanza Gulf of Lake Victoria

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Book cover The Impact of Species Changes in African Lakes

Part of the book series: Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series ((FIFI,volume 18))

Abstract

Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world (Fig. 6.1), was until recently a typical cichlid lake. Eighty percent of the demersal ichthyomass of this East African lake consisted of haplochromine cichlids (Kudhongania and Cordone, 1974a, b). The more than 300 haplochromine species, of which 99% were endemic, exploited virtually all food sources in the lake (Greenwood, 1974, 1981; van Oijen et al., 1981; Witte and van Oijen, 1990). Each species had its own unique combination of food and habitat preferences (e.g. van Oijen, 1982; Goldschmidt et al., 1990). The haplochromines were only locally important to fisheries (Kudhongania and Cordone, 1974a). In the 1970s a small-scale trawl fishery on these fishes was developed in the southern part of the lake near Mwanza. At that time the mean catch rate was more than 1000 kg h-1 (Goudswaard and Ligtvoet, 1988; Barel et al., 1991; Witte et al., 1992b).

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Authors
  1. Frans Witte
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  2. Tijs Goldschmidt
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  3. Jan H. Wanink
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Tony J. Pitcher

  2. Department of Zoology, Leicester University, Leicester, UK

    Paul J. B. Hart

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Witte, F., Goldschmidt, T., Wanink, J.H. (1995). Dynamics of the haplochromine cichlid fauna and other ecological changes in the Mwanza Gulf of Lake Victoria. In: Pitcher, T.J., Hart, P.J.B. (eds) The Impact of Species Changes in African Lakes. Chapman & Hall Fish and Fisheries Series, vol 18. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0563-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0563-7_6

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