Thesis Abstract

<p>&nbsp;                  <strong>ABSTRACT</strong><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow"></a></p><div><p>The changes that have taken place in Nigerian fisheries are reviewed with the major contributor to fish production in the Nigerian fishery sector which is the Artisanal fishery. From data accumulated over the years by Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) on fishery resources in our coastal waters, fish and shrimps are being over exploited that they no longer sustain the number of registered vessels. Consequently, the potential or maximum sustainable yields must be thoroughly examined on regular basis via sufficient data to determine the status of the fisheries resources and embark on necessary actions that ensure its sustainability. The important ability of fisheries statistics for sustainable fisheries management and under-explored potential of Nigerian waters is also highlighted. The need for human resources&nbsp;development (fisheries statisticians) at each national level was also enumerated and it was identified to operate at regional levels through government funding for joint effective participation. The need to adopt and develop strategies/technologies that ease addressing the present and uncertainties about future positions of our fisheries was emphasized. The advantages resulting for fisheries sciences are examined and illustrated with examples and the understanding of some alleged weaknesses in some popular concepts and theories would enhance technology adoption with adaptation in making explicit inferences and decisions for the sustainable management of both the present and future situation of our fisheries resources.</p></div> <br><p></p>

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p><b>INTRODUCTION</b></p><p>In Nigeria, fisheries’ contribution to the Gross Domestic Product is about 1 billion dollars, while agriculture in general is estimated at 20 million dollars. Nigeria has the resource capacity to produce 2.4 million MT of fish every year, yet the country, as at 2007 is still a large importer of frozen fish annually from all sources (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30298_an">Fasakin, 2008</a>). Fisheries, particularly the small-scale type characterized by the use of low technology fishing gear over a limited range, are fundamentally important in many regions of the developing world, providing important sources of protein and livelihoods for coastal and rural communities (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30315_an">FAO, 2004</a>). The world has made a remarkable progress in increasing fish production towards reducing food insecurity but, the recent slowdown in the trend since 1990s (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54278_b">Delgado <i>et al</i>., 2003</a>) remains a major concern for fisheries scientists to come. Fisheries are not only about fishes and their competitors and/or predators, fisheries are intended to generate economic benefits, including employment for people (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#550605_ja">Sotolu and Adejumoh, 2009</a>). With a growing world population, particularly in &nbsp;developing countries and an increasing demand for fish protein (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54278_b">Delgado <i>et al</i>., 2003</a>), there is a need to consider different ecological, economic and social goals under a much higher pressure than earlier. Global food fish production was reported to have grown annually at the rate of 1.7% between 1985-1997 while an annual growth rate of 0.4% was projected for 1997-2020 (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54278_b">Delgado <i>et al</i>., 2003</a>). Global total fish consumption increased from 12.8 to 15.7 (kg/capita/year) between 1985 and 1997 and an annual increase of 1.4 (kg/capita/year) was projected to 2020 under the same scenario. <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30315_an">FAO (2004)</a>&nbsp;has projected population growth in Africa at 1.9% from 2002 to 2015 going by the current population growth rate and therefore informed that fish production must increase by 27.7% over the same period just in order to maintain the current level of per capita supply. There is a growing interest in Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) in recent years resulting from a better understanding of the near impossibility of optimally exploiting a number of target stocks (a common management goal) that interact with other target and non-target species (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530944_ja">Walters <i>et al</i>., 2005</a>). There is also an increase concern in the effect of fisheries on the habitats and on non-target species, mainly those long-lived and with low reproductive rates such as crustaceans, seabirds, sea turtles and sharks (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530772_ja">Hall<i>&nbsp;et al</i>., 2000</a>). Considering the importance of ecosystem modeling, several models have been built for Southern and Southeastern Brazil in the late 1990s and early 2000s (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530917_ja">Rocha<i>&nbsp;et al</i>., 1998</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#7127_tr">Vasconcellos, 2000</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530942_ja">Vasconcellos and Gasalla, 2001</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530764_ja">Gasalla and Rossi-Wongtschowski, 2004</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#7121_tr">Gasalla, 2004</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530942_ja">Velasco and Castello, 2005</a>). However, most of them did not explore the capability of these models to be used in fishing policy exploration, except for the most recent ones. On the whole, the baseline information and projections identified so far from few reports such as <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54278_b">Delgado <i>et al</i>. (2003)</a>&nbsp;and <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530840_ja">Kinas and Andrade (2007)</a>&nbsp;affirmed the growing importance of fisheries for food and national resource policies in both developing and developed countries. In this paper, the degree in which the current information allows for increasing fish supply as proposed by fisheries scientists was assessed. Some scenarios for future fishing policies were highlighted and the need for human resources&nbsp;development was enumerated.</p><p><b>TRENDS IN FISHERIES PRODUCTION AND GLOBAL ECONOMY</b></p><p>Global production of aquatic food products totaled approximately 93.2 million metric tons (mmt) in 1997 (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54278_b">Delgado <i>et al</i>., 2003</a>) of which capture fisheries supplied 64.5 mmt and aquaculture 28.6 mmt. <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#t1">Table 1</a>&nbsp;and <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#t2">2</a>&nbsp;show trends in total capture food fish and total production of food fish for 1973-1997, respectively. Inland fisheries resources are exploited for food and other products-mostly as a means of sustainable livelihood and for pleasure by recreational fisheries (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30314_an">FAO, 1996</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30303_an">2006a</a>). Recreational fisheries are not confined only to developed countries, the promotion of recreational fishing as a national and international income-generating activity is already practiced in many developing countries such as Brazil, Malaysia and Zimbabwe. Inland water fisheries have also been recognized as a good source of supply of animal protein in human’s diet especially, in Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) such as Nigeria (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#550600_ja">Sotolu, 2008</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#550605_ja">Sotolu and Adejumoh, 2009</a>). Recreational fisheries are not confined only to developed countries, the promotion of recreational fishing as a national and international income-generating activity is already practiced in many developing countries&nbsp;&nbsp;such as Brazil, Malaysia and Zimbabwe.</p><p>Recreational fisheries are not confined only to developed countries, the promotion of recreational fishing as a national and international income-generating activity is already practiced in many developing countries&nbsp;such as Brazil, Malaysia and Zimbabwe. Inland water fisheries have also been recognized as a good source of supply of animal protein in human’s diet especially, in Low Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs) such as Nigeria. Fish already makes a vital contribution to the food and nutritional security of over 200 million Africans and provides income for over 10 million mostly small-scale fishers, farmers and entrepreneurs majority of who live in the riverine and coastal communities (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30316_an">FAO, 2005</a>).</p><p> </p><p>Besides, fish has become a leading export commodity for Africa, with an annual export value of US$ 2.7 bn (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30316_an">FAO, 2005</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30317_an">2006b</a>). However, these benefits are at risk especially in the face of the current global <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.scialert.net/asci/result.php?searchin=Keywords&amp;cat=&amp;ascicat=ALL&amp;Submit=Search&amp;keyword=climate+change"><strong>climate change</strong></a>&nbsp;(<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54308_b">Infofish, 2008</a>) as the exploitation of natural fish stocks is a major source of fish supply worldwide (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30299_an">Faturoti, 2000</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30311_an">Tacon <i>et al</i>., 2006</a>). Freshwater and marine habitats are also being destroyed by pollution, infrastructure development and human settlements (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#18531_bc">Nwanna <i>et al</i>., 2008</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#530735_ja">Fapohunda and Godstate, 2007</a>). Apart from being used as food, fish is also increasingly demanded for use as feed ingredient in the livestock (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#30314_an">FAO, 1996</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54278_b">Delgado <i>et al</i>., 2003</a>; <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#550603_ja">Sotolu, 2009</a>) and manufacturing industries (<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#54308_b">Infofish, 2008</a>). Based on the numerous advantages and roles played by fisheries in human existence and nation development, sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources becomes imperative.</p><p><b>POTENTIALS OF FISHERIES RESOURCES OF NIGERIA</b></p><p>Nigeria lies between longitudes 2°49'E and 14°37'E and 4°16'N and 13°52' North of the equator. The climate is tropical characterized by high temperatures&nbsp;&nbsp;and humidity as well as marked dry and wet seasons, though there are significant variations between South and North. Total rainfall decreases from the coast Northwards. The South (below latitude 8°N) has an annual rainfall ranging between 1,500 and 4,000 mm and the extreme North between 500 and 1000 mm. Nigeria is blessed with a vast expanse of inland freshwater and brackish ecosystems which are contained within 320 nautical miles (667 km). Their full extent cannot be accurately stated as it varies with season and from year to year depending on rainfall. However, as shown in <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=jfas.2011.202.211#f1">Fig. 1</a>&nbsp;these water resources are spread all over the country from the coastal region to the arid zone of the Lake Chad Basin. The country has an extensive mangrove ecosystem of which a great proportion lies within the Niger Delta and are also found mostly in Rivers, Delta, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Lagos and Ondo States. They lie between latitudes 3° and 7°6' North and are estimated to cover between 500,000 and 885,000 ha. Freshwaters start at the Northern limit of the mangrove ecosystems and extend to the Sahelian region.</p> <br><p></p> <br><p></p>