The Maru Research Center

Justin Kraus and Okju Kim decided to found the Maru Research Center in an effort to better understand and promote the Lake both to the international community and more importantly to Malawians themselves. Lake Malawi is the most biologically diverse lake on the planet with an estimated 1000 species of cichlid fish alone. However by most counts barely half of those 1000 fish have been properly scientifically identified let alone studied. The rest of the lake's ecological, biological, and even socio-economic characteristics have been similarly understudied. At the Maru we are changing that by conducting baseline monitoring of the Lake fish, water, fisheries so that we and others can gain a better understanding of how the Lake is faring and how we can better take care of it.