Seafarers’ Lament Scarcity Of Fishes, Prawns, Shrimps Others At Sea , As Job Loss Looms

Seafarers’ aboard trawler vessels are lamenting about the scarcity of shrimps , prawns and other specie of fishes at sea, over poor harvest and catches.

The seafarers expressed worries over the constant fishing which in turn has led to scarcity of the aquatic lives and the possible retrenchment of workers by trawlers operators under the aegis of Nigerian Trawler Owners Association (NITOA).

The seafarers decried the incessant hunting by numerous fishing companies in last ten months without any form of recess to be responsible for the drought , even as they called on the federal government to regulate fishing activities on the nation’s waterways.

According to them, workers job security have been threatened over concurrent poor outing of sailors seeking to catch aquatic lives at sea.

A former National President of the Nigeria Merchant Navy Officers and Water Transport Senior Staff Association, Captain Thomas Kemewerigha had called for government agencies to enforce regulations on trawlers activities at sea, stressing the need to streamline fishing activities, as part of measures to ascertain where fishing activities should take place periodically.

But members of the Fishing Zonal Council of the union told our correspondent on Monday in Lagos, that source of sea protein has been threatened due to the constant hunting by trawlers .

A top member of the Zonal Council (name withheld) disclosed that “This season is experiencing what we called dry harvest season.

The officer explained that the nation’s waters have been overstretched due to fishing activities ; a situation that led to the dearth of aquatic lives at sea.

He also noted that revenue generation on export of such commodities dropped significantly in the last ten months due regular harvest of aquatic lives without recess.

“This is the worst season of all time because there is no way we can say fishes are being caught the way it was in time past.

While appealing to the government streamline fishing activities through rotational regulations,he also stressed the need for government to declare some parts of the nation’s water free for fishing activities to thrive and to further place embargo on other regions where such operations thrive.

According to him, the sizes of catch by the seafarers have not been encouraging due to the scarcity and employers are worried on how to manage the situation not to relieve some of the workforce.

He added that “If the situation persist before the end of the year, there are indications that employers would be forced to reduce the size of workers, mostly the seafarers’ on their employs”.

 

By Roland Ekama