Climate changes have impact on fishing in every part of the world. Most especially in some places that there are flooding a lot of destruction on fish farm occurred but nobody talk about the fishes. Fish farmers have major losses in the flood. Most of the fish ponds were wash away farmers suffer tremendous losses of their fishes.
This are the major reason HLPE is trying to make avenue for academician and group of expert to come together in e-consultation to figure a way out.
Developing of aquaculture and fisheries does not stand on artisans fishing alone, government and international community need to come together to build tower of expert because every government used to give attention on Crop farming and neglect the fishery which is a big problem to fishing sector. Most especially Nigeria government spends billions annually importing fish into the country while there is a lot of water that its citizens can fish. Any country that needs to excel in fishery has to put these three aspects in cognizant.
Industrials trawlers which operate within the high sea which they do in industrial scale, artisanal fishing which harvest fish in the natural body of water which is normally done by the country. And aquaculture which is the actual fish farming, there is certain things that people does not realized in fullest that is why a minimal allocation is being done in fishing sectors of some of the countries. Aquaculture which involves elites can contribute much to artisan fish farmers but to our dismay it found that in the coastal area, aquaculture had to be all over, but the practice was neglected in these regions.
Fish provides a very high percentage of nutrients to the health of human being such as protein, in Sub-sahara Africa many because of their health were instructed not to eat red meat accept fish to improve their health due to the nutritional content of the fish.
Some artisan fish farmers should be trained in such a manner that they could earn something for their survival, this will involve improve equipment such as out-board motors to give them access to deep water resources, appropriate nets, fishing gear and simple but better processing facilities this should involve drying smoking and so forth. Fish is an extremely perishable foodstuff. Spoilage start as soon as fish dies it will get spoiled within 12-20 hour depending on their species, methods of capture and the condition of the environment. So for preservation fish need to be dries or smoked to be able to store for long period to wait for the buyer. This innovation and recent one need to impart to artisan fish farmers to improve their earning and provide food security.
Fish handling to all tiers must cover various methods used by people involved in fisheries operation to ensure that the fish products are always in good condition to the end users.
This involved observing good quality measures, maintaining good hygiene and quality control. Such measures deter the prevention of the fish and made fish well acceptable to the consumers.
Once fish are harvested, they must be isolated from adverse sunlight/heat. If wanted alive they must be kept in good container with clean water within the shortage possible time. If wanted dead, the fish most starved or knocked at the head instantly without allowing it to struggle to dead.
The fish must be sorted out in species, age, sex, and size as desired
The fish must be gutted. This exercise should be carried out on boat (on the boat or canoe) by sliding the fish with a sharp knife from the neck to the vent and the gut viscera removed. Cutting helps to remove the bacteria and digestive juices which will accelerate autolysis and purification. The fish should be washed in clean water to remove the blood and debris. The offal’s can be properly saved for processing into feed meal and silage. Plastic boxes, aluminum balls or any other that will not retain stain and could be easily clean is better in fish storage in boat or canoes. Later the products (fish) should be chilled. The lower the temperature the better as long as the fish does not freeze. Fish can be process into many forms:
Fish meal.
Fish Silage.
- Fish muse - used to produce fish cake, scourge and fish finger.
Samuel Ayuba HamisuMAx Blanck