Status of fisheries law compliance in some fish landing sites in two local government areas of Rivers state, Nigeria

Illegal and overfishing are major threat to fisheries resource sustainability in Nigeria. The study determined social characteristics of fishers, level of awareness of the law and level of enforcement of fisheries law. A simple random sampling technique using 320 questionnaires was adopted to select the sampled population from four artisanal riverine communities along New Calabar River and Bonny Estuaries in Rivers State namely Station 1 (Nembe waterside), Station 2 (Mgbuosimini), Station 3 (Isaka-Bundu) and Station 4 (Borokiri-Rex-Lawson waterside). Respondents were identified through household listing. The level of education of fishers indicated that most of the sampled fishers were educated. From the respondents, only 1.56% was aware of the law. There was very high level of non-compliance to the 76 mm mesh size requirement; Nembe waterside, had 83.00%, Mgbuosimini had 76.00%, Isaka-Bundu had 80.00% and Borikiri Rex-Lawson Waterside had 85.00% mesh sizes less than 76 mm requirement. This indicated a violation of the mesh size requirement due to ignorance on the part of fishers and open access to the marine resources. Fishers agreed that the law should be reviewed. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be programmes to increase awareness of review of the provisions and enforcement of the law. Key Words : Factors, influencing, Fisheries Law, compliance, landing sites