The Nigerian multispecies marine fisheries have undergone rapid development during the period 1974–84. The fishery manager should now concern himself with appropriate fishing innovations and exploitation of “new” untapped resources possibly off the slope. It is not clear that increased fishing intensity will result in a significant increase in catch of those dominant species presently exploited by artisanal and industrial “fleets”. Hence, attention must be focused on appropriate regulations and control of fishing effort.
It is recognized that some effort and progress have been made in the collection and compilation of biological data and fishery statistics but there are still a lot of information gaps on landings by artisanal and industrial fishing boats as well as by-catch of shrimpers and finfish trawlers. There is a need to update the inventory of all types of canoes, number of fishermen, fishing gears and landing sites along the entire coast of Nigeria. Additionally, it is necessary to revise the inventory of all industrial fishing vessels, indicating nationality of vessel, type of boat, horse power, overall length, grt and several gear characteristics.
Without reliable fishery data and statistics of what is currently being caught, it is obviously difficult to predict future trends. Also a series of catch and effort statistics, if continued over a period of years provides the best measure of changes in a stock of fish and the impact on fishing on it.
Rational management of the fishery resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) requires greater control of fisheries. It is imperative that proper fishery legislation and regulations be established and whenever possible be harmonized with those of adjacent coastal States jointly exploiting the resources. A national forum is needed to discuss problems connected with the implementation of fishery regulations.
In the context of extended jurisdiction the most obvious set of actions are the controls set on fishing in the new EEZ, especially on foreign fishing. These measures have little direct impact on the inshore fisheries which are of interest to artisanal fishermen. However, there can be interactions, with various fisheries and these should be taken into account in choosing controls.
It has been reported that in Nigeria conflicts occur between the artisanal and industrial demersal fleets when fishing on the same grounds. In order to protect the artisanal fishery, the fishery authorities have adopted the following restrictions:
the inshore trawlers are not allowed to fish at depths less than 20 m or
less than 2–3 miles from the shoreline.
It has been noted more recently that the regulations are not always respected and that artisanal fishing gears are occasionally damaged by industrial trawlers operating very close inshore. Since the inshore areas of the continental shelf are spawning grounds for a number of demersal fish, pelagic species and also penaeid shrimp, it would be very useful if the competent fishery authorities should take the necessary actions to rectify the situation and save the inshore fisheries from collapsing.
The density of fish stocks, the catch rates of individual fishermen and catch rates of trawlers/shrimpers is determined by fishing intensity. For stocks that are rather heavily fished as those of Nigeria any increase in fishing effort will decrease the catches and catch rates of vessels already fishing. If the well-being of existing fishermen is a priority fishery policy issue, then entry of additional trawlers and shrimpers must be allowed with very much caution.
The introduction of industrial fishing vessels for exploiting the stocks which are fished by canoe fishermen in the inshore waters will have definitely adverse effects. Fishery administrators must carefully evaluate the benefits of some increased catches in a short-run and the social costs of some artisanal fishermen being forced to abandon fishing.
There is a difficult question of fishing on the spawning concentrations. The artisanal fisheries are in the shallower inshore areas, estuaries and lagoons which are also the spawning and nursery areas of many species. Some of these species exploited in inshore waters are also caught in offshore waters when they are bigger. Hence, fishing activities of the artisanal fishermen can result in a decrease in total weight of catch and size of species caught. The fishery manager in Nigeria has a difficult choice to make between increased total catch by the expanding industrial sector and the well-being of the artisanal fishermen before allowing more expansion of the industrial fleet.
The establishment of EEZ provides an opportunity to control foreign fishing through the increased awareness at high political levels of the importance of rational management of fisheries in the whole zone from the coast out to 200 mi, for the greater benefit of the inshore artisanal fishermen. If the decisions taken to apply restrictive measures are to achieve the objectives hoped for, it is essential that those responsible for fishery management have adequate information on distribution and migration of fish stocks. In particular, it is necessary to know to what extent the same fish stocks is harvested by the inshore fishermen and by the larger offshore foreign vessels which are now more directly affected by the establishment of EEZ.
