Following the increase in the cost of Automated Gas Oil, otherwise known as diesel, used to power fishing trawlers and boats in Nigeria, most of these boats have been unable to go to sea to fish, a development that brought about an increase in the cost of fish in the market.
Speaking to Vanguard in Lagos, the Secretary General of the Lagos State Fishermen Corporative Association Capt Oladele Robinson,(Retired Navy Captain) said that the lull being experienced in the n the nation’s fishing and fisheries activities was due to the astronomical increase in the price of diesel.
According to Capt Robinson both industrial and artisanal fishermen until about a year ago bought a litre of diesel for N270 per litre adding that a litre now cost between N1,300 and N1,500 and this is really affecting operators in the fishery sector.
The issue of diesel has affected so much because from about N270 per litre of diesel about a year ago, we are now buying a litre of diesel for N1,300, N1,500 per litre and that is really affecting us.
It has made some of vessels to stop going to the sea to catch fish.
And this has resulted in the exorbitant prices of fish and other sea foods in the markets because the few of us that are running on smaller boats and vessels that are able to buy diesel at this prevailing rate have now spread the cost of the products that they are able to catch from the sea.
That makes a kilo of fish like Barracuda or shinenose or croaker jumped from about N2,600 to about N4,000 per kilo now. And this is telling on the purchasing power of the consumer and end users. We do not know how government can help us particularly we that are involved in ocean fishing that is industrial fishing. Even some of our artisanal members that are using engines that are run on diesel and some of them that run on petrol are also being affected right now because a litre of petrol goes for about N300 or N350 now from N170 that is almost double the cost of petrol.
While the artisanal fishermen run boats that are using petrol and the industrial sector use inboard engines that runs on diesel . So these sources of power are so expensive now it has led to an increase in the cost fish and other sea products like Octopus, Inkfish that are highly medicinal to the end users.
In order to enable the masses to be able to afford this very important sources of protein, government should come to our rescue, they should assist us in alleviating the prices of the these sources of power.
The development has affected quite a lot of our members because there are so many fishing companies now that are even going to sea at all, the only ones that are still going are managing to do so like Atlantic Shrimpers, Karlflex and maybe Banarly that are going to the sea once in a while. They do not go like they used to go because of the cost of diesel and petrol.