Lake Victoria biodiversity being ‘decimated’

And it stressed the threat from invasive species to the native biodiversity in the basin, highlighting the South American purple-flowered Water Hyacinth, which was accidentally introduced to the lake in the 1980s.

At its peak, the plant covered nearly 10 percent of the lake surface in dense floating mats, which served to reduce the oxygen and nutrients available, impacting the native biodiversity, IUCN said.

“The risk of extinction for freshwater biodiversity in the region is increasing,” co-author of the report Catherine Sayer said in the statement.

Hundreds of the species present in the lake had yet to be charted, meaning “the number of species at high risk of extinction may be even greater then we currently realise,” she added.