Recently, Suleiman Ojo had to buy another fishing net. The one he had got torn multiple times by the scrap metal lodged in the lagoon. This is the challenge those who fish the lagoon face.
Littered across the surface of the Lagos Lagoon, especially in the Apapa area, are dozens of ships that have been abandoned, some of them for many years. The ships stay on a spot for so long they rot away.
"The metal plenty for inside the water. If you no know, if you put your net there, thing go hook am, and you go think say you don catch big fish. But when you draw am, your net go tear. So we dey try avoid the side wey metal dey. And na all these big ship. When they spoil dey go sink come dey cause problem for us," Mr. Ojo said.
The tearing of fishers' nets is not the only problem posed by the abandoned ships. Environmental and maritime experts the damage is huge and includes the contamination of fishes and sediments. The abandoned ships also cause accidents on the water ways.
According to Oladele Osinbanjo, a professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, and Director, Basel Convention Regional Coordinating Centre for Africa, the bottom of a ship contains a lot of toxic chemical that are harmful to both aquatic life and humans. Therefore, their staying on one spot for years will result in the discharge of these chemicals to the marine environment thereby polluting it. |
