Fisheries Survey of Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria supports Africa's largest inland fishery, with the majority of present catch being the invasive Nile perch, introduced to the Lake in the 1950s. Prior to the introduction of Nile perch as well as Nile tilapia, the fish community was very different and consisted mainly of 'Ngege' (Oreochromis esculentus) and Victoria tilapia (O. variabilis) as well as vast numbers of Haplochromis species. Fish communities in the first half of the 20th century are known primarily from a unique fisheries survey conducted in 1927-1928 by the Colonial Office.

In 1927 Michael Graham was sent from the fisheries laboratory in Lowestoft, together with Edgar Barton Worthington to spend a year surveying fisheries in Lake Nyanza (Lake Victoria). This unique survey represents the first ever systematic characterisation of Lake Victoria fish populations.

The original hand-written 'Naturalists Logbooks' from this survey have recently been re-discovered in the archive of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). These are now being digitized and made available to researchers seeking a 'baseline' against which subsequent changes can be compared.

On 13 December 1928, Certificates of recommendation were received by the Linnean Society for election of Michael Graham to Fellowship status. Michael Graham read his paper on ‘‘The Natural History of the Victoria Nyanza", at the Linnean Society on 24 May 1929.