Lake Victoria, Uganda

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Lake Victoria is 69,000 square kilometres in size, making it the largest lake in Africa, the largest tropical lake in the world, and the second largest freshwater lake in the world. It is the source of the longest branch of the Nile, the White Nile. The lake rests in the Great Rift Valley and is surrounded by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. It is also an extremely sick ecosystem. During the 1950s, the nile perch (Lates niloticus) was introduced into the lake's ecosystem in an attempt to improve the yields of fishing in the lake. The nile perch proved totally devastating to the local ecosystem - of the hundreds of endemic species, many are now extinct. Further, the initial good returns on nile perch catches has diminished dramatically. Currently, the nile perch is being overfished. It is reported that some populations of endemic species have increased again. An eco-problem with a happier outcome was the fight against the huge increase Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), a native of tropical America, which forms thick mats of plant causing difficulties to transportation, fishing, hydroelectic power generation and drinking water supply. By 1995 90% of the Ugandan coastline was covered by the plant. With mechanical and chemical control of the problem seeming unlikely, the mottled water hyacinth weevil, (Neochetina eichhorniae) was bred and released into the lake with very good results. Since the 1900s Lake Victoria ferries have been an important means of tranport beween Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The main ports on the lake are Kisumu, Mwanza, Bukoba, Entebbe, Port Bell and Jinja. The lake was first encountered by Europeans in 1858 by the British explorer John Speke. He named the lake after the then Queen of the United Kingdom.

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