Nigeria’s N44bn Fishing Industry under Threat
THE nation’s over N44 billion fishing industry is at the brink of collapse following the incursion of foreign trawlers and the menace of piracy in the country’s coastal areas, a development, which operators say may snowball into severe fish scarcity.
BusinessWorld gathered that foreign trawlers from Spain , Portugal , Russia , China , Taiwan and Korea come to the nation’s coast areas to plunder tonnes of fish every night. They come with better industrial trawlers that can stay at sea for weeks and even months, equipped with ice boxes.
In January last year alone, 50 cases were reported, resulting in 10 deaths. Incessant attacks on fishing crews caused the Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NTOA) to call its fleet of over 200 trawlers and 20, 000 workers back to the shore, leading to a shortfall in fish supply.
According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), sea pirates made the past year a challenging one for ship owners. IMB said piracy figures worldwide during the month of January to September 2009, surpassed the numbers for 2008. Nigeria is a maritime state of about 140 million people, with a coastline measuring approximately 853 kilometres.
With this scenario, the natural expectation is that Nigeria should not only be self-sufficient in fish production but should also be an exporter of aquatic foods. Sadly, however, Nigeria imports between 700,000 and 900, 000 metric tons of fish annually to partially meet a shortfall of 1,800,000 metric tons.
BusinessWorld gathered that foreign trawlers from Spain , Portugal , Russia , China , Taiwan and Korea come to the nation’s coast areas to plunder tonnes of fish every night. They come with better industrial trawlers that can stay at sea for weeks and even months, equipped with ice boxes.
In January last year alone, 50 cases were reported, resulting in 10 deaths. Incessant attacks on fishing crews caused the Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NTOA) to call its fleet of over 200 trawlers and 20, 000 workers back to the shore, leading to a shortfall in fish supply.
According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), sea pirates made the past year a challenging one for ship owners. IMB said piracy figures worldwide during the month of January to September 2009, surpassed the numbers for 2008. Nigeria is a maritime state of about 140 million people, with a coastline measuring approximately 853 kilometres.
With this scenario, the natural expectation is that Nigeria should not only be self-sufficient in fish production but should also be an exporter of aquatic foods. Sadly, however, Nigeria imports between 700,000 and 900, 000 metric tons of fish annually to partially meet a shortfall of 1,800,000 metric tons.
