Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/123

The Resources of the Niger Delta *Hepsetus odoe, the African River Pike, being a large fish with big teeth.
 * Citharinus latus and citharus, the Moonfish, having deep moon-shaped bodies.

11.4.3 INSHORE, ESTUARINE & BRACKISH-WATER FISHING (MARINE)

By contrast to the Fresh-water ecozones, fishing in these ecozones (which we call marine) is intense and has been well documented. Marine fish resources have been characterised as follows:


 * Periwinkles, only utilised by local communities;
 * Oysters, only utilised by local communities but suitable for culture;
 * Squids, Cuttlefish and Octopi, which are incidental to bottom trawling but which have useful protein value;
 * Crabs and Lobsters, which are largely under-used;
 * Shrimps (sometimes known as Prawns or Cray-fish), which are seriously overfished;
 * Sharks and related Sawfish, Rays, Scates and Mantas, which have very high quality meat; and
 * the Bony Fish, which make up the majority of the catch, with about 80 utilised species including Croakers, Sole, Catfish, Snappers Barracuda, Bonga, Mackerel, Mullet, Sardines and Ribbonfish.

Protein: with fats and oils, and carbohydrates, the major component of living things. Protein is made up of molecules called Amino Acids, which form a variety of proteins essential to life - both structural (e.g. the protein that make up muscles) and functional (e.g. the proteins that make up enzymes used to trigger chemical reactions in the body). As with fats and carbohydrates, proteins are vital to the diet of animals and are most efficiently supplied by meat.

Marine fishing is a major economic activity in the Niger Delta. It is carried out in a number of ways by Local People: from the deep-sea boats with 4-6 crew and a couple of outboard motors, to simple throw nets on the seashore, to the collection of Molluscs in the mangrove forests.

As explained in Chapter 7, marine fishing throughout Nigeria and the whole of West Africa is dependent upon the mangrove forests of the Niger Delta. Moreover, the Nigerian fishing industry provides a great deal of employment and economic opportunity because it is labour intensive and dominated by the small fishermen who were still taking up to 90% of the national marine catch in the late 1980s.

11.4.4 THE DECLINE OF MARINE FISHING

Environmental damage to the Niger Delta and over-fishing throughout the region is a threat to the Nigerian marine fishing industry. It has been suggested in the Natural Resources Conservation Action Plan, that the sustainable marine catch (excluding the deep sea) is 190,000 tonnes a year. However, between 1980 and 1986 annual recorded catches ranged between 137,000 and 370,000 tonnes on a declining plain, and fishermen complain that their catches are going down. Deep-sea trawler catches have 121