Effects of Oil Spill on Fish Production in the Niger Delta

Abstract

The Niger Delta region is the oil producing area of Nigeria, which consist of highly diverse ecosystems that is supportive of numerous species of terrestrial and aquatic fauna and flora. This region is the largest wetland in Africa and it is among the ten most important wetlands and marine ecosystems in the world. Incident of oil spill raises concern about seafood safety. Crude oil spill endangers fish hatcheries in coastal water and also contaminates commercially valuable fish flesh. This study examines the effect of oil spills on fish production in the Niger Delta of Nigeria from 1981-2015 using an estimable model based on a Cobb Douglas production function. The variables included in the model are captured fish production, number of fishers, loan to fishery, oil spills and oil production. The findings suggest that oil spill and oil production negatively affects fish production, while farm labour has a positive effect on fish production. On the other hand, fishery loan exerts a negative effect on fish production and this could be ascribed to the bottlenecks in trying to access these loans. The Pairwise Granger Causality test result shows that the number of times oil is spilled to the environment affects the level of fish production negatively. This study corroborates the findings in recent literature and proposes a cautious approach to oil exploration activities for sustainable economic development.