PlanetCatfish.com

Spent the last few days up at Lake Albert and thought I would share some photos. My main take away from this trip was the incredibly destructive overfishing going on in the lake. You'll note that almost all of the nets they are using have very, very fine mesh sizes so basically nothing escapes.
I watched about 40 boats come in from fishing all night and the total catch, among all of them, was about two dozen undersized Tilapia and a single foot long Nile Perch. Every other fish brought in was under 3 inches. One fisherman did have two Synodontis (possibly macrops) but the fisherman refused the let me take a photo of them. There are many refugees and undocumented persons from the Congo (DRC) in this area, so no surprise that not all welcomed a muzungu with a camera.

More Lake Albert

Missed Opportunities, Why did the Chicken Cross the Road, Lost!, A New Barb

On the way in to our camp we had crossed the Wambabya River and I was very excited to collect it on the way out. The vast majority of the Nile watershed in Uganda, given the lack of mountains, consists of large swamps. Finding something more akin to a hill stream with a good water flow was thus very exciting and, I hoped, a sure source of new and interesting fishes.
Navigating in had proven very difficult. While the map shows pretty clear roads this is not the case at all. These are one lane dirt roads and dozens of one lane dirt roads, not included on the map, branch off in every direction. Needless to say there are no signs or even landmarks and most junctions. As it had rained the night before, and we had driven the route once, I handed my wife the map and asked her to navigate so I could concentrate on driving the slick dirt roads.
Note: Handing your partner a map in such circumstances is the equivalent of saying, "Lets have a screaming match." It might save time in these cases to just cut straight to the yelling and hurt feelings.
At some point i realized we must have missed a turn as the terrain did not look familiar. About this time we were going through a small village of half a dozen huts. A village chicken was pacing my right front tire so I slowed down waiting for it to run off the road's shoulder. Instead it decided to make a hard right turn and disappeared beneath the tire. Looking in the rear view mirror all I could see was a cloud of feathers. A few more kilometers down the road and my wife realized we had missed an important turn. She suggested we turn around. I knew by now that someone in the village would have found the chicken. If we went back, best case scenario, we could pass out some money and sweets and drive on. Worst case we could be surrounded by a very angry mob of Congolese refugees with my 5 year old daughter and 65 year old mother in the car. Now we were off the proper path and could not retrace our route. We decided to push ahead.
We eventually managed to get a rough fix on our position and come up with an alternative route back to Hoima. Confident we were on our way we came upon a nice collecting location near a papyrus swamp. Although I had hoped not to collect another swamp, I did not want to go home empty handed. Plus, after 2.5 hours navigating dirt roads, everyone was ready to get out of the truck and stretch.
The location was very productive with every pull of my one person seine bringing up barbs, guppies, cichlids, and small Clarias. While this is the normal catch for these locations I did notice that one of the barbs I was catching was new to me. My initial belief is that it may be Barbus perince. Unfortunately there are very few resources for identifying small African barbs. In the week since we returned they have settled in well and are eating dry foods.
Six hours after departing our camp we made it home to Kampala. Everyone immediately retired to their own rooms (me to my fish room) as we had endured about all the "family quality time" possible. Luckily we are a good humored lot and by dinner time we were a happy family again trading jokes about each others sense of direction and poultry murdering abilities.
-Shane

More pics.

Sounds like a typical day out in Africa!

That river looks very interesting, you'll have to try and get back there when the locals' memories of chicken murdering mzungus have faded!

Shane,
You lead a most interesting life!
Amanda

Shane, do you stand much chance of picking up nasty diseases (e.g. bilharzia) in swamps like that?

"Handing your partner a map in such circumstances is the equivalent of saying, "Lets have a screaming match." It might save time in these cases to just cut straight to the yelliing and hurt feelings."
Hi-larious!ROFL I have definitely been there and done that. Too funny Glad your family has the skills to patch that up.

On a serious note, the overfishing is very sad to see. Do you find it hard to continually advocate for sustainable fishing practices and solutions? Have you been able to make any 'inroads' on that level?

Thanks so much for the pics. That is definitely a beautiful country. Please keep the pics coming.

RickE wrote:Shane, do you stand much chance of picking up nasty diseases (e.g. bilharzia) in swamps like that?

I think Shane has previously said he takes Praziquantel every few wees, just in case, as a medication against such diseases...

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Mats

MatsP wrote:I think Shane has previously said he takes Praziquantel every few wees, just in case, as a medication against such diseases...

That has to be the funniest typo ever.

Jools

It's a beaut!

I blame the crappy keyboard on my cheap laptop...

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Mats

Quite right! I also found smilies which also appear to fit the thread...

:animals-chickencatch:

Jools

Can't find 'wees' in my dictionary. But in Dutch it happens to mean 'orphan'.

Makes the typo a bit nastier

Bas Pels wrote:Can't find 'wees' in my dictionary. But in Dutch it happens to mean 'orphan'.

Makes the typo a bit nastier

Nothing so sinister Bas, it's just English slang for urinating!

I think Shane has previously said he takes Praziquantel every few wees, just in case, as a medication against such diseases...

I think the treatment for that ailment requires antibiotics Absolute best typo ever.

Yes, I dose with Praziquantel every six months or so. That said, I have been tested several times and always tested negative. I think there is a lower risk of catching schisto (bilharzia) in the swamps as the water is quite acidic and thus not conducive to snails. Every proven case I am aware of here has been picked up in Lake Victoria itself or the Nile.

On a serious note, the overfishing is very sad to see. Do you find it hard to continually advocate for sustainable fishing practices and solutions? Have you been able to make any 'inroads' on that level?

I have failed to make any inroads on this issue despite having routine access to the people and organizations best placed to tackle the issue. The reasons are too numerous to list and this question would be best answered via a rant over beers. Basically, while their hearts are in the right place, 99% of people involved in "development" are liberal studies majors who tackle the issues from a social sciences perspective. "Hard" issues do not often get tackled as few people in the development world are scientists or engineers. Far easier to just a build cinder block schoolhouse in three days to show "progress" and move along (usually without leaving an actual teacher behind).

Another issue is that western nation-sponsored development is too often more about making donor nations feel better than it is about actually helping the recipients of their donations.

A great book that spends some time on this issue is Dark Star Safari.
http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Star-Safari- ... roduct_top
Theroux (the author) will give you an earful about all the good done for Africa by foreign aid, missionaries, charities, NGOs, and the UN. In sum, and very tongue in cheek, he believes Africans were better off back when they promptly threw these types in their cooking pots.

-Shane

A colleague of mine that I chat with at lunchtimes from time to time is from Zimbabwe, and he says that many problems in Africa are a combination of deeply rooted cultural/traditional values (e.g. the men sit on their fat behinds and wait for the women to do the work) along with misdirected aid from richer countries. Sometimes there is also currouption and other forms of selfishness involved with those that hold power (locally or more centrally), that makes the problems harder to solve.

And building a school house, but not supplying a teacher is a brilliant example of "poor" help.

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Mats

Great story! Great typo! Sad about the fine mesh over fishing.

You do lead a life that deserves to be chronicled in a book series that we can buy. You remind me of the James Herriot of fish or Gerald Durrell of fish.

And way been there done that with the map thing, only not in Africa.

Shane wrote:I have failed to make any inroads on this issue despite having routine access to the people and organizations best placed to tackle the issue. --- Basically, while their hearts are in the right place, 99% of people involved in "development" are liberal studies majors who tackle the issues from a social sciences perspective.

Reminds me of the large barb species in Lake Tanganyika. They were earlier the base of the fishing in the lake, but they had the bad fortune of migrating up local rivers to breed. Aid organizations gave the fishermen nylon nets, the fishermen used them to block the mouths of the river to catch the fish as they migrated upstream. In just a few years the barbs went from being the basis of a tens-of-thousands-of-tonnes-per-year fishery to being wiped out. Some species have not been seen for years and are probably extinct.

Meanwhile, in an ironic reversal of fortune, in Lake Victoria the Nile perch, implanted to convert the worthless cichlids to valuable exportable Nile perch fillet, and which subsequently proceeded to convert perhaps as many as 200 species to extinction, is now itself threatened by overfishing. As the nile perch population is being fished down, some of the presumed extinct species have been sighted again, apparently having weathered the nile perch onslaught in some sheltered corner somewhere.

Naturally no effort is spared by several government agencies and NGO's to... save the Nile perch.

Shane, thanks for the link to the book. I will have to check it out. It all reminds me of the saying "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" not just in Africa but the world over. Then, personally I can't remain that pessimistic. I have to remind myself, "I do what I can from where I stand". Conservation never ends. I feel we just have to keep looking for good opportunities to 'speak' for the natural world.

Great trip there Shane!!! Any idea on the other cats documented from this region???

Below is the best list I have been able to put together.
-Shane

Mochokidae
S. afrofischeri - 17.7cm (Collected at Lake Nabugabo)
S. frontosa - 34.2cm, downriver from Murchison Falls.
S. khartoumensis - No confirmed records?
S. macrops - 17.3cm, Aswa River
S. victoriae - 35cm, most common at depths of 20 m. Entebbe and Jinja.

Clariidae
Xenoclarias eupogon - 20 cm, deep waters of Victoria. Critically endangered. Last capture 1977.

Clariallabes petricola, 9cm, Owen Falls damn at Jinja

Clarias alluaudi - 35 cm, papyrus swamps, Lake Nabugabo, Entebbe, Jinja
Clarias gariepinus - 170 cm
Clarias hilli - 19.6 cm, Lake Albert
Clarias leocephalus - 32 cm widespread
Clarias werneri - 23 cm Lake Kyoga, Entebbe

Scheilbeidae
Schilbe intermedius - 60.5cm

Malapteruridae
M. electricus, Albert Nile

Amphiliidae
Amphilius jacksonii -15cm, Lake Edward drainages DRC/Uganda border

Bagridae
B. bajad - 112 cm, No records? Lake Albert?
B. degeni - 55 cm, Entebbe. Among reeds and papyrus.
B. docmak - 127 cm,

Shane wrote:Below is the best list I have been able to put together.
-Shane

Amphiliidae
Amphilius jacksonii -15cm, Lake Edward drainages DRC/Uganda border

Bagridae
B. bajad - 112 cm, No records? Lake Albert?
B. degeni - 55 cm, Entebbe. Among reeds and papyrus.
B. docmak - 127 cm,