Oil Spillages and Captured Fish Production in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Abstract

The Niger Delta is the oil-producing region in Nigeria; it is the largest wetland in Nigeria and among the 10 most important wetland and marine ecosystems globally. The incidence of oil spillages raised serious concerns about seafood safety. Hence, this study empirically examined oil spillages and captured fish production in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. This study made used secondary data from 1986 to 2018, which was sourced from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Federal Department of Fisheries (FDF) and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). The study engaged Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds estimation technique Findings revealed the existence of a 5% significant level of impact oil spillages on fish production negatively in Nigeria. The ARDL error correction model (ECM) for the first simulation showed a relatively low value of -0.28. This implies a relatively low speed of adjustment, which captures the rate of return to equilibrium. Therefore, this study concludes that oil spillage decreases the quantity of captured fish production in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is essential that fishing activity remain viable because it is the main employer in the region. This can only be accomplished by sustainable exploitation, utilisation and management of oil resources in the Niger Delta region.