The Incredible, Sustainable Lake Victoria Nile Perch Fishery

In a recent news release, ironic even by my standards, Naturland a German cooperative of organic farmers, announced it has certified the Lake Victoria Nile perch fishery as sustainable and products from the area will now carry the organization's eco-label.

This is excellent news! Or is it? This certification has a number of implications that warrant consideration.

If one were to list the 10 most significant fishery/ecological disasters of the last century, surely introduction of Nile perch into Lake Victoria would rival depletion of the northwest Atlantic groundfish stocks for the top spot on the list.

But we now can rest easy. The Lake Victoria Nile perch fishery is no longer in danger of overfishing.

Nile perch was introduced into Lake Victoria in the 1950s to increase the production of table fish, according to the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization. Since its introduction, the Nile perch has been responsible for the extinction of literally hundreds of endemic cichlid species.

This affected the local, artisanal fisheries. After the native cichlids disappeared, a substantial portion of the fishery switched primarily to Nile perch, which was harvested for the retail, and increasingly export, market.

Nile perch now is too expensive for most residents of the Lake Victoria region. Well, the locals can purchase Nile perch heads and frames (skeletons) that remain after the fillets have been removed for export to Europe.

Now, recent stock assessments suggest that Lake Victoria Nile perch is overfished.

Enter Naturland, which recognized two problems: overfishing of Nile perch and the absence of any organization to certify artisanal fisheries as "sustainable." Naturland also recognized an opportunity here. There is, in Europe, a premium market for fish that are harvested "sustainably."

Naturland developed a procedure by which artisanal fisheries may be certified as sustainable. (Some information about the cerfitication process is posted on Naturland's website. I have asked for additional details, but, alas, my request went unanswered.)

Naturland recently certified as sustainable that portion of the fishery that included "eight landing sites in the western region of Lake Victoria and involves about 1,000 fishermen, in Bukoba, Tanzania."

This is a start, I guess. The Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization estimates there are about 192,000 fishers on Lake Victoria. One thousand down, one hundred ninety-one thousand to go.

What is the benefit of certifying such a small proportion of the fishery, in one of three countries that border Lake Victoria?

Is this part of a larger attempt by Naturland to set a standard that all fishers will have to follow? Or is this simply a way to allow those willing to pay a premium for fish that are harvested from a "sustainable" fishery to feel good about themselves?

The larger question, one with which everyone in the fishery profession ought to be concerned, is what effect will certifications offered by Naturland and the Marine Stewardship Council have on fishery management?

Will these independent certifications benefit fisheries, by forcing traditional fishery management bodies to actually address sustainability? Or will they negatively affect fisheries, by certifying small proportions of larger fisheries as sustainable, which may be misconstrued as certification that the whole fishery is sustainable?

Is this latter possibility one to be concerned with? Obviously so. If you read the news released cited above, one is given the impression that the entire fishery is sustainable. The reality is that only a negligible portion of the fishery has been certified as sustainable. It is hard to argue this is more than just window dressing.