Survey of fishing gears of Oyan Lake, South Western Nigeria

Abstract

A survey of the fishing gears of Oyan Lake was carried out for eighteen months from January 2001 to December 2001 and March 2002 to August 2002. There were six fish landing stations along the entire lake out of which three stations representing the inlet (Station 1), the mid-lake (Station 2) and the dam site (Station 3) were selected randomly for this study. The total number of active boats recorded for the entire lake was 43,241 with Station 2 having the highest number, 3,287 (about 76%) and the least in Station 3 (dam site area), which was 130 (3%). No motorized boat was observed on the lake throughout the study period. All the boats were manually operated by paddling. The prohibition of gura and bamboo traps as fishing gears is recommended because they catch the largest number of small fishes which often are not returned back to the lake.

Keywords: Study, fishing gears, Oyan Lake, Nigeria