Abstract:
Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and the largest in the tropics
(Crul, 1995). It is found in East Africa, within 0°20'N to 3°00'S and 31°39'E to 34°53'E at an
altitude of 1134 m. It has a surface area of about 68,800 km2 and a maximum depth of about
70 m. The lake is shared by Tanzania (51%), Uganda (43%), Kenya (6%), with a drainage
basin of about 195 000 km2 which includes the neighbouring states of Rwanda and Burundi.
Lake Victoria originated less than 1 million years ago and may have been dry for several
millennia until about 14,000 years ago (Stager & Johnson, 2007). The lake and its numerous
satellite lakes were originally dominated by a rich fish fauna, comprising several hundred
species of cichlids (Kaufman et al., 1997).