Akarakumo in Nigeria is a small fishing village some 30 minutes drive from the nearest town. Families in the village schoolteacher John Sewanu and his family of seven depend on the sea for food and income. It is said that the villagers usually take fresh fish to Badagry for sale except when we catch very big fishes that cannot be consumed at home or sold in the local market.
It is told that when they smoke plenty fish and crayfish, they carry ‘am go Badagry market and traders come to buy them. Sometimes we sell plenty. Fish is an important dietary component and one of the few sources of animal protein available to many people in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for an average of 20 percent of total protein; in coastal areas, fish supplies as much as 80 percent of animal protein consumed.
According by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) fishing is carried out in Nigeria’s many rivers, creeks and lagoons while trawlers operate along the coast, but the total annual catch supplies only 50 percent of the country’s seafood needs, estimated at 800,000 metric tons, Nigeria imports over $200 million worth of seafood products annually to supplement local production.
Forty-three-year old Sewanu, who teaches in the village primary school, makes between 10,000 and 20,000 naira ($66 to $132) from a good catch, especially when he can take large fish the 10 kilometres to Badagry in time to sell them fresh.
Folake Areola, national president of the Fisheries Society of Nigeria (FISON), informed that Nigeria’s inland waters can make Nigeria self-sufficient in fish production and fish protein if properly harnessed and managed. She added but if fishermen keep on taking from the waters without replenishment, there will be shortage.
She said the Federal Ministry of Agriculture is also doing a lot through various fish farming projects and production of fingerlings to support increased local fish production. At a meeting in Lagos early this year, the Nigerian navy said it had acquired vessels to fight piracy in the nation’s territorial waters including checking the activities of foreign fishing vessels that illegally fish in her waters.
