Darwin's Dreampond: Drama on Lake Victoria

Tijs Goldschmidt, a Dutch biologist, has been working for several years along the shores of East Africa's Lake Victoria, a freshwater sea the size of Switzerland. There he has chronicled the changing fortunes of the genus Haplochromis, made up of perchlike fish that differentiate into new species faster than any other vertebrates. Their numbers, however, fell precipitously after the Dutch government funded a fishery industry that harvested 60 tons of these cichlids daily; this industry also introduced nonnative species of fish that threatened to destroy the indigenous fauna. Goldschmidt writes of the mechanics of extinction--a process he says many biologists are loath to describe, for there "is always the hope that somewhere, hidden away, unnoticed, several individuals are still thriving." Students of population biology in particular will find this book of urgent value. --Gregory McNamee