Nigeria Fisheries
Fishing on Lake Chad
Courtesy Embassy of Nigeria,
Courtesy Embassy of Nigeria, Washingto
Fish being examined at Baga Experimental Centre
Courtesy Embassy of Nigeria, Washingto
Data on fisheries output were meager in 1990. In the
mid1960s , estimates indicated that Nigerian fisheries brought
in
120,000 tons of fish per year and imported 180,000 tons,
mostly
air-dried fish. Domestic production through the 1970s
ranged from
600,000 to 700,000 tons annually.
Nigeria has declared an exclusive economic zone
extending 200
nautical miles from its coast. These waters include the
continental shelf along more than 800 kilometers of
coastline, a
large area of brackish lagoons and creeks, and freshwater
rivers
and inland lakes, including fish-rich Lake Chad and Kainji
Reservoir, among other artificial bodies of water. In the
early
1980s, the bulk of the catch was taken by small businesses
using
large canoes (some motorized) along the coast, smaller
canoes in
the creeks and lagoons, and similar small boats in
freshwater
areas. The modern commercial fishing fleet consisted of
about 300
licensed craft ranging in size from 20 tons to more than
6,000
tons; about one-third were vessels under 265 tons that
engaged in
inshore fishing and shrimping. In the mid-1970s, the
government
set up the Nigerian National Fish Company jointly with
foreign
interests to operate a deep-sea fishing fleet. In 1975 the
Nigerian National Shrimp Company was established in
partnership
with a North American firm. But deep-sea fisheries were,
and in
1990 continued to be, dominated by foreign-owned trawlers,
despite substantial investment in fisheries development,
including the provision of fishing supplies and outboard'
motors
to small local enterprises in the late 1970s.
Data as of June 1991
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