Optimizing the impacts of an invasive species on the threatened endemic biota of a remote RAMSAR site: Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) in Lake Kutubu, Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Sometime between 2010 and 2012, Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) invaded the remote Lake Kutubu, in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, apparently as a result of flooded aquaculture ponds. The subsequent burgeoning population of Tilapia has had apparent impacts on the RAMSAR-listed lakes’ ecology, but paradoxically may be benefiting endemic fish and crustaceans in the lake that have been under severe threat of extinction due to sustenance overfishing. Here, we explore options for eradicating or adaptively managing the invasive Tilapia population, and conclude that it is logistically and socially feasible to use low-risk genetic (chromosomal) technology to establish a non-self-sustaining population in the lake as an alternative protein source for local communities that causes minimal environmental damage while reducing exploitation rates on endemic taxa that have already driven at least three to apparent extinction.