Report on the investigation into the Tilapia population of Lake Naivasha, Kenya

Introduction: In 1959 fishing on a commercial scale was begun in Lake Naivasha, inthe Kenya rift Valley, by Mr. F. Bisletti. The fish were taken fresh by lorry to the Nairobi market daily. Since nothing was known about the size andcharateristics of the population and hence the potentia1 scope of the fishery Mr Bisletti requested advice from the Kenya Department of Game andFisheries. Dr V.D. van Someren and Mr. P.J.P. Whitehead of the Fish Culture Research Station at Sagana visited the lake and invited the co-operation of E.A.F.F.R.O. to make a stock assessment using the methods which Mr. D.J.Garrod was applying to the Tilapia esculenta population of N. Lake Victoria. Van Someren and Whitehead also noted a few aberrant specimens which they thought might be hybrids. Accordingly D.J. Garrod and myself visited thelake several times in 1960 and 1961. It was hoped that this would provide a singularly good opportunity to study an almost virgin fishery based on asingle population and to follow the changes in population size and structureas a known fishing pressures with gear of know selectivity, was applied.From this, it would have been possible to deduce ago composition, growth rate and recruitment, and hence compute the optimum yield ,which could besustained. Mr Garrod submitted a report at the beginning of this work.

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Elder, H.Y.
Other Authors:	East African freshwater fisheries Research Organization
Format:	monograph biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	East African Freshwater Fisheries Research Organization 1959
Subjects:	Fisheries,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/1834/32695
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