Potential fishery of Nile perch Lates niloticus Linne (Pisces:Centropomidae) in Nyanza Gulf of Lake Victoria, East Africa

From bottom trawls, L. niloticus in Nyanza Gulf was observed to have a gulf-wide distribution. Lates dominated the catch at Homa point. Catch rates in kg h super(-1) varied from one location to another and from month to month. Its estimated production is 11,000 metric tons, netting about 22,000,000 Kenya shillings (US $2,000,000). Abundance of food items such as freshwater shrimps of the genus Caridina , and Engraulicypris argenteus , have been used as basis for estimating the growth and production of Lates .