Fishing effort statistics of the artisanal fisheries of the Cross River Estuary, Nigeria

Frame surveys were carried out in 1997 and 1998 to assess the efforts statistics of the artisanal fisheries of the Cross River Estuary. These surveys covered the inner Estuary and the West coast of the outer Estuary. Fishing effort was taken as number of fishers, number of canoes and types of fishing gears. A total of 64 fishing villages were surveyed (51 in inner and 13 in outer Estuary), and brought on map. The total number of fishers was 87,990 (39,090 in the inner and 48,900 in the outer Estuary). The mean of fishermen per settlement was 1,294 (782 in the inner and 3,762 in the outer Estuary). The total number of canoes was 19,023 (10,303 in the inner and 8,720 in the outer Estuary). The mean number of canoes per settlement was 280 (206 in the inner and 671 in the outer Estuary). About 12 different fishing gears are in use in the area with gillnets, beach seine, traps, anchor (stow) net and purse seine being the most widely used. The fishing crafts were mainly non-motorized dugout canoes with the exception of the purse seine and anchor net canoes in the outer Estuary.