ABSTRACT
Insert a sentence of Introduction/Justification of the research.
This study assessed the association between household livelihood diversification and fisheries conservation policies among fishermen in coastal areas of Ogun State, Nigeria by adopting a multi-stage sampling procedure. Sample size was 90 fishermen from six randomly selected fishing communities (Abureji, Agbalegiyo, Ilamo, Imosan, Iseku and Wharf) along the coastline in Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were collected using pre-validated interview schedule and subjected to descriptive and inferential analytical techniques. Majority of the fishermen (98.9%) were married, in the age bracket of 41-60 years (71.1%) with average age of 49 years, had household size of 6-15 persons (91.1%) with average household size of 9 persons. About 90.0% were from extended families, with either no formal education (43.3%) or only primary education (41.1%); 62.2% were non-members of social groups, and 93.3% had no other occupations. There was generally low level of household livelihood diversification across the fishing communities. Gill nets were the most commonly used fishing gears across the fishing communities (80.0%),followed by seine nets (63.3%), traps (56.7%) and trawl nets (53.3%) while fish aggregating devices (35.6%), cast nets (37.8%) and hook and line (24.4%) were the least used fishing gears. Coastal fishery was characterised by conflicts among water users (64.4%), absence of protected fishing areas (81.1%), and experience of water pollution (36.7%). Majority (71.1%) of the fishermen agreed with closed season policy as a coastal fisheries conservation strategy, followed by gear restriction (30.0%). There were significant associations between level of household livelihood diversification and fishermen’s agreement with gear restriction (χ2 = 15.545, df = 5), and closed season (χ2 = 11.214, df = 4). The study concluded that coastal fisheries are in a poor state and that it could be improved through the introduction of gear restriction and closed season policies. The study recommended that youths in the coastal areas could venture into fishing, and that government and non-governmental agencies could organize sensitization programmes on fisheries conservation policies across the coastal areas in Ogun State.
Keywords : Coastal fisheries, Closed season, Gear restriction, Household, Pollution