Declining Artisanal Fishing in the Niger Delta Region: A Baseline Survey of Finima Community of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This empirical study was conducted to serve as a baseline survey for further research on multinational oil companies and Finima community (Host Community) in the Niger Delta Region. An instrument titled Finima Baseline Inventory was constructed and administered to family respondents using a stratified random sampling technique. The data collected were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics as expected of baseline surveys. The survey revealed that before the advent of oil exploration, 80% of Finima community were engaged in artisanal fishing while real estate (renting of houses), government/private company employment and contractors were non existence. With the advent of Shell, Mobil and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas limited (NLNG), 60% of the indigenes of Finima community are now engaged in real estate and 20% as contractors. Artisanal fishing is a dismal 2%. The drastic shift from artisanal fishing to real estate and contracting is as a result of the neglect of agriculture and non enforcement of environment laws by the Federal Government and the aforementioned multinational oil company’s environmental degradation, exploitation and pollution activities. The study recommends that major role should be assigned to sustainable agriculture and enforcement of environmental laws by the Federal Government when establishing multinational oil company’s presence in the Niger Delta region.