Fishing: Director Decries Use Of Chemicals

L-R: Chairman, Board of Trustees, National Agricultural Foundation of Nigeria, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, National Co-ordinator, Dr Samuel Negedu, Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina and Governor Umaru Al-Makura, of Nasarawa State, at the National Agricultural Show in Tudunwada, Nasarawa State, yesterday.

The Assistant Director,
Fisheries in the Federal Ministry of Agriculure, Mr. Babatunde Olusegun has called on the federal government to provide patrol boats to effectively help the Navy in policing the nation’s territorial waters.
Mr. Olusegun who was speaking as guest in an NTA Progamme recently said the use of chemicals like gamalin and other dangerous chemicals in order to be able to get a good number of fish from the water, was unethical .
He also said the use of undersize mesh size to enable fishermen sweep the water to ensure a bumper fish harvest as they could within the very short time from the water without any form of replacement in the form of fingerlings was also bad for the water environment.
Mr Olusegun said  fishing gear and activities could be said to be destructive when the environmental impact of fishing was not taken into consideration.
“When you over fish a particular specie that means it has gone beyond the amount of sustainable yield which may make that stock not to be able to recover” he said.
The agric boss said such a situation could lead to the extinction of that fish specie in that particular water.
He decried the challenges facing the authorities in checking the influx of foreign fisher men into the country’s waters, and said such activities needed to be checked.
He said the use of mesh by foreign countries involved in coming into our territorial waters to poach using every form of foreign technology to access our fish, has to be addressed.
“The country should provide patrol boats to effectively work with the Navy to police our territorial waters” he said.
He decried the slow implementation of code of conduct for proper fishing even as he said the way fish was replenished was not equal to what was being taken out from the water.
Mr. Olusegun further called on the authorities to make laws to check the life of fishes through the marines in order to arrest and penalize defaulters who use chemicals and over fishing methods.
“Adequate measures should be meted out to those who engage in irresponsible manner of fishing so that we can conserve both the resources and the environment will also be protected” he said.