Beach seine fisheries in Badagry, Lagos State, South West, Nigeria

Abstract

Beach seine fisheries in Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria, was studied. Focused group discussion, observation and interview sessions were used to collect data on gear description, catch composition, socio-economic characteristics, livelihood parameters, fish species, productivity and other fishing inputs. Surveyed beach seine net had mean length of 301.76 m +/- 17.82 m while the depth of the wing and at the centre measured 2.80 m +/- 0.14 m and 4.02 m +/- 0.22 m, respectively. The mean of the frequency of operation for the fishing companies was highest in April (22.20 +/- 1.49) and the lowest in September (13.20 +/- 0.86). The moon fish (Carangidae), croaker fish (Scianidae) and spadefish (Eppiphidae) families represented more than half of the daily landings. The mean monthly catch recorded for the companies ranged from minimum of 644.50 kg +/- 98.72 kg to maximum of 754.03 kg +/- 123.523 kg from April to September with the market price for fish (in Nigerian Naira N) that ranged from N3.18 to N15.91 per basin and recorded highest biannual mean income of N780.72 +/- N67.00. 20% of the respondents were aged between 21 and 30 years followed by 37% of those aged between 31 to 40 years while 29% were aged between 41 to 50 years and 12% were between 51 to 60 years old. Only 2% were above 61 years of age which shows the years of experience of the fisher folks. Of the total 50 respondents, 94% were found to be males while 6% were females. Larger proportions of the fisher folks (36%) were single, 56% were married and 8% were divorced. The distribution of level of education shows that about 21% of the fishermen, who were involved in beach seine fisheries, had no formal education, while 40% had primary education, 34% had secondary education and only 5% had tertiary education. The coastal artisanal fishery is still able to absorb a little more effort and capacity to enable production meet up with the potential yield. It is however essential in the national interest that there should be a clear understanding of fishing capacity development on capital, labour and fish resources, both in the short and long term.