Jassan Ahdi

9/19/16 Per. 4
Invasive Species
One of the worst times that a foreign species was introduced to a foreign land was when the Nile
Perch was introduced to Lake Victoria. This organism is a large fish that is native to several freshwater
African lake and river systems. This organism was originally supposed to come in order to create an
economic boom, but sadly also created a threat to the biodiversity of Lake Victoria in the year 1950. The
Nile Perch is able to grow to a full length of two meters in length and can weigh up to two hundred
kilograms. The devastating impact of this gigantic fish is the result of the crashing population of organisms
in the lower tiers of the food web of the marine ecosystem. Organisms such as fish, crustaceans, insects,
and zooplankton were drastically affected by the introduction of the Nile Perch into their ecosystem in
Lake Victoria. This is because even though the populations of the fish were kept in check through
commercial fishing for several decades, the population of the Nile Perch increased rapidly in the late
1980s. One female Nile Perch is able to lay up to sixteen million eggs at once, which allows for rapid
population growth where there are no predators. When a Nile Perch increases in age and size, its
appetite also increases. This will result in the Nile Perch needing to search for larger prey than before, or
eating more of its prey in order to survive. This caused many of the native Lake Victoria species to
become endangered or even become extinct from Lake Victoria. By the end of the 1980s, three hundred
of the native fish were no longer existent. But it was not just the marine ecosystem that was affected.
Many fishermen fell into poverty, while the businesses that exported made millions of dollars. Not just the
aquatic ecosystem, but the forest ecosystem was also drastically affected. The Nile Perch is not as thin
as the native species, it is much more fatter than the other fish in the area. Because of this, fisherman
that caught Nile Perchs had to smoke their catch instead of drying them in the sun like the other fish. In
order for the fisherman to smoke the Nile Perch, they had to gather wood from the nearby forests. This
act resulted in a great loss of forest land that was around the area. To make matters worse, those
surrounding forests were already under pressure with forest species relying on them. When the trees from
the forest were cut down for wood that was needed to smoke the Nile Perch, the habitats of many species
were destroyed. In conclusion, the invasive species known as the Nile Perch did not just have a negative
effect on the aquatic ecosystem, but had a negative effect on the forest ecosystem as well. This example
of how the interference of a foreign species to a foreign land is a threat to biodiversity shows how one
cannot simply bring an invasive species into a land where there are no predators that will keep their
population in check.