Economic Advantages and Management of Fishery Resources

(i) Foreign exchange earning either through exports or import substitution of fish and fishery products

(ii) A healthy population with an important source of animal protein rich in essential amino acids

(iii) Gainful employment to a segment of the population particularly those in coastal rural communities

(iv) Promotes the development and growth of ancillary industries e.g. ship building, net making, cold room business in the fish preservation industry.

Management of Fishery Resources

Management of fish resources is designed therefore to exploit them at optimal level on a sustained basis to achieve economy of operation at minimum cost. The following are measure taken by the country in managing her marine resources which at the same time check all abnormal fishing activities going on around the water bodies of economic value.

• Limitation of the size of vessels

Limit is placed on the size of vessels allowed to fish in inshore waters, 0-50m for instance only vessels of 100 GRT are allowed to fish in the inshore waters.

• Establishment of minimum cod-end mesh size

Nigeria for instance has adopted a cod-end mesh size of not less than 76mm when trawling for fish and 44mm when trawling for shrimps. This is to allow immature fish to escape the net, grow and mature to breed.

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• Licensing of fishing vessels

Vessels must be licensed and must fly the national flag before they can fish in territorial waters. This measure is targeted at controlling fishing efforts and generates revenue.

• Restriction of fishing to certain areas of the coast

Imposition of restriction to designated fishing area is to protect some fisheries. In Nigeria, trawling for shrimps is prohibited West of the Niger delta to ensure that the small mesh size of shrimp trawls do not destroy immature croakers which constitute the backbone of the inshore industrial fishery. Valuable fish stocks are most abundant to the east of it.

• Prohibition of trawlers from operating within certain limits of the shore

This is to minimise the conflict between artisanal coastal fishermen and semi-industrial trawlers. Such trawlers often violate this limit and destroy nets of artisanal fishermen. In Nigeria, trawlers shall not fish within the first 2 nautical miles of the coast. However, there is need to extend this limit to 5 nautical miles of the coast.

• Closed season

Breeding and nursery grounds of important fishes and shell fish may be closed to fishing at breeding seasons to protect juvenile fish in nursery grounds e.g. The Bonga fish and shrimps. It is very common for the artisanal fishermen to catch the young of bonga fish and the shrimps at
their nursery grounds with nets of small mesh sizes less than 25mm.

Table 1: Important Marine and Brackish Water Fish Species

Table 2: Important Commercial Shell Fish Species

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