CRASH

The rise and fall of the Nile Perch
By Alexis Masciarelli BBC News, Kisumu

Karen can only afford leftovers. Karen Onyango is waiting by a not very well refrigerated truck near the Kenyan lakeside town of Kisumu for leftover scraps of fish. Her face is being splashed by bits of head, bones, tails and sometimes a little bit of pink flesh as well. This morning, she is buying 200 pieces of Nile Perch leftovers to fill her handcart. All of this comes from one of the three fish processing factories operating in Kisumu. The introduction of the Nile Perch to Lake Victoria some 50 years ago was controversial and fearsthat the lake's indigenous species would suffer have been proved right.
It did, however, lead to an economic boom - but over-fishing has since lead to a crash.