Pirates, high water waves hindering our business – Oron fishermen

Some fishermen in Oron, Akwa Ibom, have raised concerns over incessant attacks by militants, pirates, and high water waves leading to mishaps while fishing on the sea.

The fishermen, who spoke to the newsmen on Wednesday, said the challenges are responsible for the high cost of seafood, including fish, crayfish, periwinkles, and snails, among others.

They appealed to the federal and state governments and relevant government and private agencies to come to their aid in addressing the challenges.

Mr. Efiom Duke, a fisherman, said the high sea waves, as the rains intensified, have hampered the movement of a good number of fishermen into the deep sea to catch fish.

“It is always difficult at this time for us to go to the deeper parts of the sea to get some catch, as the small boats we are using cannot withstand the wavecrest.

“The sea waves are so high that at this period, a lot of us are afraid to enter the sea.

“The atrocities of militants in the water is another major issue we will like government to tackle, ” he said.

Duke said the challenge of high water wave could be addressed if they could be supported in acquiring high capacity watercraft that can withstand the sea wave.

“We are still depending on the locally made boats we inherited from our great grand parents over some decades ago.

“I think it is high time the governments, state government in particular, look into assisting the fishermen by providing us with high capacity watercraft to do our business efficiently.

“We recorded about four mishaps resulting to loss of lives and huge catches of crayfish, fish of assorted types,” Duke explained.

He, therefore, appealed to governments to organise empowerment programmes for fishermen as they had never enjoyed such intervention initiative..

“The government can play roles in subsidising items like fish net, provision of high capacity watercraft, securing the waterways and the rest,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, Mr Emma Isong, another fisherman, expressed concern over sea pirates whom he said are on daily basis seizing their items while on transit to the inter land for the sales of their catches..

“We cannot move freely again to deliver our catches to the customers on land; we have to be settling militants on a daily basis before we can get to the land.

“On refusal to do so, they will seize your engine, boat, goods, and even the little money on you, and you will become stranded on water,” he explained.

Corroborating the claims of the fishermen, Mrs Cynthia Uso, a dealer on crayfish and periwinkles, lamented the increase in the prices of seafood.

She said it has been difficult for them to have enough purchases from the fishermen because of the activities of pirates and poor fishing items

Uso said the situation is worsened with the high cost of transportation owing to increase in price and non-availability of petrol

According to her, a bag of crayfish that was sold for N80,000 in 2023 has increased to N140, 000.

“You can imagine the huge gap in the price. That is why it has been very difficult to supply these items to our customers in the cities like Lagos and Abuja,” she said

Uso, who described the development as “pathetic and worrisome”, urged the governments to come to the aid of the fishermen and other supply value chains in the sector.