Keyword: overfishing
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At the fishing village of Kyehoro, the locals catch tiny carpenter fish for food for themselves, and to sell as animal feed. Here, a woman spreads fish on a dirt road to dry in the sun, and adds dirt to give the fish more weight when she sells them. This is the smallest fish (and last fish species) they can strain from Lake Albert; people turned to it after Nile perch populations dwindled due to overfishing.
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A boy holds up a tiny carpenter fish in the village of Kyehoro on Lake Albert in Uganda. Though huge, the lake is severely over-fished. Nile perch are now too small and too few to sustain the human population, so locals have taken to using mosquito nets stitched together to get their food. With mesh that small, no fish can escape. “Any aquatic organism that falls in the net is killed,” says a local guide. Residents of the area get 80% of their food and fish from the lake, which means serious trouble when the fish run out.
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With one of the world’s largest migratory routes, the red knot (Calidris canutus rufa) finds itself especially susceptible to any disruption in its feeding areas along the way. Overfishing of horseshoe crabs along the eastern coast of the US has taken away a much-needed source of energy for the species. (US: Candidate for listing)
