Kapenta

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Kapenta

The Tanganyika sardine, known as Kapenta in Zambia

Zambia

The Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
and Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe , is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the continent of Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo River rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east....
or Dagaa or Ndgaa elsewhere, is really two species (Lake Tanganyika sardine

Lake Tanganyika sardine

The Lake Tanganyika sardine is a species of fish in the Clupeidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Limnothrissa. It is found in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe....
Limnothrissa miodon and Lake Tanganyika sprat

Lake Tanganyika sprat

The Lake Tanganyika sprat is a species of fish in the Clupeidae family. It is monotypic within the genus Stolothrissa. It is found in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia....
Stolothrissa tanganicae) both of which are small, planktivorous, pelagic

Pelagic zone

Any water in the sea that is not close to the bottom is in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek language p??a??? or p?lagos, which means open sea....
, freshwater

Freshwater

Freshwater is a word that refers to bodies of water such as ponds, lakes, rivers and streams containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids....
clupeid originating from Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika is a large lake in central Africa . It is estimated to be the List of lakes by volume in the world by volume, and the List of lakes by depth, after Lake Baikal in Siberia....
in East Africa

East Africa

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Encyclopedia

The Tanganyika sardine, known as Kapenta in Zambia

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Lake Tanganyika sardine

Lake Tanganyika sprat

Pelagic zone

Any water in the sea that is not close to the bottom is in the pelagic zone. The word pelagic comes from the Greek language p??a??? or p?lagos, which means open sea....
, freshwater

Freshwater

Lake Tanganyika

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN subregion, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
. They form the major biomass of pelagic fish in Lake Tanganyika, swimming in large schools in the open lake, feeding on copepods and potentially jellyfish. Their major predators are four species of Lates
Lates

Lates is a genus of freshwater and seawater fish in the family Latidae of the order Perciformes. The type species is Lates niloticus, the Nile perch....
which are also endemic to Lake Tanganyika, and are related to (but not the same as) the Nile Perch

Nile perch

The Nile perch is a species of freshwaterfish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is widespread throughout muchof the Afrotropic ecozone, being native to the Congo River, Nile River, Senegal River, Niger River, and Lake Chad, Volta, Lake Turkana and other river basins....
in Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the Great Lakes of Africa.Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometres in size, making it the continent's largest lake, the largest tropical lake in the world, and the second widest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area ....
. All of these pelagic fish have suffered from overfishing

Overfishing

Overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
in the last two decades.

Limnothrissa miodon has been successfully introduced in both natural and artificial African lakes. Large kapenta fisheries now take place in the Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba

Lake Kariba is a large, man-made lake and reservoir located on the Zambezi river, about halfway between the river's source and mouth, about 1300 kilometers upstream from the Indian Ocean....
(Zambia

Zambia

Zimbabwe

Cahora Bassa

The Cahora Bassa lake is Africa's fourth-largest artificial lake, situated in the Tete Province in Mozambique. The name Cabora Bassa is an earlier misspelling of the name....
(Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest....
).

This fish is caught at night using lights to attract it. A dip net

Hand net

A hand net, also called a scoop net, is a net or mesh basket held open by a hoop. It may or may not be on the end of a handle. Hand nets have been used since antiquity and can be used for scooping fish near the surface of the water, such as muskellunge or northern pike....
generally about six meters in diameter is used to bring the fish up from anything from 40 meters (130 ft). It is then salted at a ratio normally of 2.5 kg per 30 kg (1 lb per 12 lb) of fish, and dried in the hot Zambezi Valley sun. It is hugely important staple, providing refrigeration-free protein to people of Africa. A cup of dried kapenta will feed a family.

It is an important bait fish

Bait fish

Bait fish are small fish caught for use as Bait to attract large predatory fish, particularly game fish. Species used are typically those that are common and breed rapidly, making them easy to catch and in regular supply....
for the Tigerfish

Tigerfish

Tigerfish is the common name for a variety of species from several different families of fish, usually on account of their colouration or otherwise fearsome appearance:...
(Alestiidae

Alestiidae

African tetras are a group of Characiformes fish exclusively found in Africa. This family contains about 18 genera and 110 species.Among the best known members are the Congo tetra, and Hydrocynus....
family) and although introduced in Kariba and Cahora Bassa, does not seem to have harmed the environment.

An important contributor to the economies of the areas it is caught in.