Zambia, Zimbabwe in Fish Fight as Australian Crayfish Invade
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While Zimbabwe and Zambia squabble over fishing rights in the world’s biggest dam, an invasion of Australian crayfish and Nile tilapia is threatening to wreak havoc with Lake Kariba’s indigenous species.
Built in the 1950s the 280-kilometer (174-mile) long reservoir hosts an industry that today has more than 1,100 commercial boats that hunt shoals of three-inch-long Tanganyika sardines, known locally as kapenta, at night. While the fish were introduced in the 1960s, they haven’t harmed local species and provide food for indigenous tiger fish. Populations of Nile tilapia and Australian redclaw crayfish, which escaped from fish farms, may be causing more damage.