Editor\u2019s note<\/p>\n
For this multimedia story Nosmot Gbadamosi travelled with photojournalist Andrew Esiebo to fishing communities and food markets in Lagos. They talked to fishers and sellers throughout the city, as well as activists and experts based further afield.<\/p>\n
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Although a terrifying myth, it defines the lagoon\u2019s importance as the linchpin of life in Makoko, where residents eke out a living from the polluted waterway snaking through Africa\u2019s most populous city of around 20 million people.<\/p>\n
On a cloudy Monday morning, Jacob Lodun, 20, readied his boat for a 12-hour slog on the water. A fisher born in Makoko, this has been Lodun\u2019s daily routine since he was nine.<\/p>\n
Back then he and his father would return home from a trip with scores of catfish and a heap of smaller species. Some would be cooked up in pepper soup while the rest went to early morning markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we don\u2019t get any fish to kill,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fish are running further away.\u201d Sat in a dugout canoe with no outboard engine, he is unable to chase them.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo buy a motor is around 500,000 naira (US$1,390),\u201d Lodun shrugged \u2013 more than triple his monthly income.<\/p>\n Lodun\u2019s predicament points to a much bigger problem facing Nigeria\u2019s 190 million people. The coastal nation is marine-rich but over half<\/a> the fish served there are imported from countries like the Netherlands and, increasingly, China.<\/p>\n At a time when growing evidence suggests warming waters are pushing fish further from the West African coast, the fishing grounds of developing nations like Nigeria are today some of Asia and the EU\u2019s most targeted. Lack of investment in the local fishing industry has compounded the problem.<\/p>\n In 2018, the Nigerian navy declared the country was losing US$70 million annually to Chinese trawlers fishing illegally in its waters. Going in the other direction, China exported roughly US$42 million<\/a> worth of fish to Nigeria in 2017, more than double the year before.<\/p>\n Nigeria is the fourth largest importer of fish. Foreign imports plug a 2 million metric tonne<\/a> supply gap to a growing population<\/a> predicted to exceed 300 million by 2050.<\/p>\n \u201cCoastal communities are fighting not only illegal fishing or overfishing, they also have to suffer from the impact of climate change,\u201d said Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, a maritime security researcher at King\u2019s College London.<\/p>\n \u201cOfficially Nigeria does not have any fishing arrangements with distant fishing nations such as China or the European Union. But they are able to fish in Nigerian waters illegally because maybe they have arrangements with [the nearby island nation of] S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 and Pr\u00edncipe so they have a reason to be at the border,\u201d she explained. Around 34 ships fish for tuna<\/a> in the waters of S\u00e3o Tom\u00e9 under a Fishing Partnership Agreement with the EU. Two years ago, the nation signed its first fisheries agreement with China. A report<\/a> from the Overseas Development Institute used satellite tracking to monitor the methods of exploitation used by foreign fleets within the stretch of water from Senegal to Nigeria. It revealed fishing boats commonly transfer catches to other vessels in order to flout quota regulations. Catches are also transported via container ships that are subject to less stringent checks. Vessels from China, the Netherlands and Spain were identified.<\/p>\n Okafor-Yarwood studied Nigeria\u2019s fisheries in 2015. \u201cThe department of fisheries cannot engage in pursuit because they do not own [an effective] patrol vessel,\u201d she said. Their vessels have a range of no more than 200 nautical miles.<\/p>\n \u201cThe navy are trying, but their vessels are derelict… Then you find corrupt personnel taking backhanders to let certain things slide.\u201d This includes fishing with finer-mesh nets to catch more fish.<\/p>\n In December 2018, the Nigerian government approved the purchase of two patrol boats for the department of fisheries \u201cto monitor unreported, unregulated and illegal fishing by Chinese vessels\u201d, according to local media outlet the New Telegraph<\/em><\/a>. But Okafor-Yarwood is worried that the vessels will be manned by the navy, which has no expertise in collecting evidence of fisheries crimes.<\/p>\n In the nineteenth century, Makoko was a tiny fishing village in the growing trading hub of Lagos. Economic dreamers from Nigeria\u2019s coastal states and neighbouring countries journeyed to the area in search of wealth. But short on affordable land, they expanded onto water.<\/p>\n Today, more than 100,000 people call this stretch of water home. Their stilted shacks, a testament to Lagosian ingenuity, are considered illegal by the Nigerian government.<\/p>\n Located by the side of Nigeria\u2019s most famous slum is Asejere Makoko fish market. On a Thursday evening, before the sun sets over Third Mainland Bridge, the ringing of commerce in this sprawling market can be heard from afar as journeymen, businesswomen and students buy their evening meal. Croaker, mackerel, tilapia and sharp-toothed barracuda are piled unceremoniously in plastic buckets.<\/p>\n Fishwives on the lookout for buyers slice and dice fish caught earlier by their husbands, while wheelbarrow boys carry assorted livestock<\/a> parts, hollering their presence as they carve a path through the crowds.<\/p>\n Many of the fish caught, filleted and sold in Asejere, are destined for a stockpot of obe eja tutu (Nigerian fresh fish stew) and have come from the nearby ocean.<\/p>\n But 18-year-old Janet Hunukon has no fresh fish to flog. She is more concerned with enticing customers down a concrete alley nestled in the market\u2019s belly where her ice block coolers sit full of frozen fish.<\/p>\n Farmed Chinese tilapia is popular because it is cheaper and more profitable than locally-caught fish. \u201cWe make more money from frozen,\u201d said Hunukon. \u201cIf you buy a carton for 8,500 naira (US$24) you can sell it for 12,000 naira (US$33).\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Fisherman](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/J6A1908-662x441.jpg\")
Looting Nigeria\u2019s seas<\/h3>\n
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\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/west-africa-fishery-countries-map-1440x785.png\")
<\/div><\/p>\nFresh fish being frozen out<\/h3>\n
![\"Fish](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/J6A2744-662x441.jpg\")