Ensuring Fisheries Protection, Marine Safety
Eromosele Abiodun tasks the federal government to implement the outcome of a regional conference that seeks to promote mechanical response to oil spill and protect fisheries and other aquatic species in the marine environment
Environmental destruction has a very long-term effect. Crude oil is Nigeria’s economic mainstay; its exploration has a major effect on the environment whether onshore or offshore. As we push to grow our economy by exploring for oil we destroy the environment and the very factors that sustain life
On 28 October 2016 in Hobart, Australia, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources agreed to establish the first Antarctic and largest Marine Park in the world encompassing 1.55 million km2 (600,000 sq mi) in the Ross Sea. Other large Marine Protection Areas (MPAs) are in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans in certain exclusive economic zones of Australia and overseas territories of France, the United Kingdom and the United States, with major (990,000 square kilometres (380,000 sq mi) or larger) new or expanded MPAs by these nations since 2012—such as Natural Park of the Coral Sea, Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, Coral Sea Commonwealth Marine Reserve and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Marine Protected Area. When counted with MPAs of all sizes from many other countries, as of August 2016 there are more than 13,650 MPAs, encompassing 2.07 per cent of the world’s oceans, with half of that area – encompassing 1.03 per cent of the world’s oceans –receiving complete “no-take” designation.
Marine protected areas are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or large lakes. MPAs restrict human activity for a conservation purpose, typically to protect natural or cultural resources. Such marine resources are protected by local, state, territorial, native, regional, national, or international authorities and differ substantially among and between nations. This variation includes different limitations on development, fishing practices, fishing seasons and catch limits, moorings and bans on removing or disrupting marine life.
In some situations (such as with the Phoenix Islands Protected Area), MPAs also provide revenue for countries, potentially equal to the income that they would have if they were to grant companies permissions to fish. In Nigeria, the absence of MPA and regular oil spill has almost destroyed the means of livelihood of many in the Niger Delta. To reverse the trend, stakeholders recently organised a regional conference on marine safety and fisheries protection to put the matter on the front burner and provide solutions.
The conference was put together with the support of the Norwegian government and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). Protecting the Environment Speaking at the conference, the Norwegian government and the UNITAR called on the federal government to enhance national contingency plans and invest in relevant equipment to ensure effective oil spill prevention and protect the environment to future generations.
The Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Jens-Petter Kjemprud pointed out the past oil spills in Nigeria were preventable.
He stated that while Norway has been involved in oil exploration for decades, the worst oil spill in its history was the Ekofisk Bravo spill in 1077, which he stated was the first serious uncontrolled oil blowout offshore.
“It exposed serious deficiencies in the country’s defence against such pollution and the expertise of an American specialist had to be called upon to control the well. In this part of the world along the coast from South Africa to Nigeria, a handful of incidents have happened at sea over the years, most of them because of accidents with oil tankers outside South Africa, one of the busiest ship routs in the world. Accidents like the Bonga accident of 2011 have also happened at offshore installations in Nigeria,” he stated.
Kjemprud added that Nigeria is blessed with rich marine resources and the country must continue to find ways through which activities regarding oil exploration would not hamper its biodiversity. He charged participants to use the opportunity provided by the conference to deliberate on how to strengthen regional cooperation when major accidents occur.
On his part, Country Head and Resident Representative/UNITAR Nigeria Office, Lawrence Boms said there are great benefits for the entire region if the abundant economic opportunities existing in the area spreading across the Gulf of Guinea to the Cape in South Africa are tapped sustainably.
Boms, who is also the Area Security Coordinator, United Nations System in Nigeria said the region’s riches in oil and other marine resource and the viability of the marine for shipping present so much economic possibilities.
“According to statistics, the region accounts for 3000 ships passing annually with an estimated 140 million tons of oil. The combination of oil, marine resources and shipping can help propel economic prosperity in ways that it would be of benefits to businesses, government and the people,” he added. Oil Sill Danger Speaking on the danger of oil spill, the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside stated that every economic activity has environmental consequence.
“Environmental destruction has a very long term effect. Crude oil is Nigeria’s economic mainstay; its exploration has a major effect on the environment whether onshore or offshore. As we push to grow our economy by exploring for oil we destroy the environment and the very factors that sustain life,” he said.
Peterside stressed the need for concerted and collaborative efforts of all stakeholders towards the conservation and sustainable use of ocean resources for the protection of the environment and indeed the entire ecosystem.
The DG said that the activities of oil exploration and resultant oil spills whether onshore or offshore can continuously hamper the ecosystem.
Peterside also noted that Nigeria is blessed with abundant aquatic resources including rare species of fishes but lamented that while the sea is being exploited for various economic purposes, not much attention is paid to the sustainability of the environment.
In his words: “While tapping into the resources of our marine environment for economic advancement, care must be taken to ensure the perseveration of the environment or else wealth becomes useless if our environment is damaged.”
Peterside equally frowned at the indiscriminate use of dispersants to clean up oils spill adding that NIMASA as the Government regulatory Agency in conjunction with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), has a list of approved dispersants.
Specifically, he said: “Before the usage of dispersants, we must consider the chemical composition and the attendant effect of its breakdown to the marine environment and of course the ecosystem.”
Other speakers at the event were the Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. Oluwatoyin Suarau represented by Mr. Emmanuel Audu, Executive Director of the Nigerian Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research Dr. Gbola Akande amongst other notable maritime stakeholders.
The conference is borne out of the need to promote mechanical response to oil spill and protect fisheries and other aquatic species in the marine environment for the benefit of the west and central Africa sub-region. Environmental Consequences In his paper titled: “Environmental Consequences of Oil Spills on Marine Habitats and the Mitigating Measures – the Niger Delta Perspective,” Mr Etiese Etuk Akpan of Clean Nigeria Associates Limited said oil spills in the marine environment could have wide spread impact and long-term consequences on wildlife, fisheries, coastal and marine habitats, human health and livelihood, as well as recreational resources of coastal communities and the ancestral heritage.
“Oil spill effects on fish, sea birds and other marine life are mostly due to the smothering and physical contamination or due to the toxicity of the chemical components of the oil. The fisheries and mariculture sector are impacted by the physical oiling of equipment and contamination of seafood leading to tainting and the effects on commercial and subsistence fisheries lead to substantial losses,” he said.
He added that the repercussions of contaminated seafood on public perception is very serious and requires restoration of market confidence and public health assurances.
He added: “The impact of oil spills on coastal and marine environments can be both short and long term. The degree of the damage caused by an oil spill event depends primarily upon the quantity of oil spilt, the chemistry and properties (type) of the oil and the sensitivity of the biological resources impacted.”
Akpan stated that oil spillage is a major environmental challenge in Nigeria especially in the Niger Delta region which harbours the operations of the most major oil companies in Nigeria. According to him, “The Government of Nigeria is statutorily obliged by section 20 of the constitution to protect the environment from oil spill. Section 20 of the Constitution provides that “The State SHALL protect and improve the environment and safeguard the water, air, and land, forest and wild life of Nigeria,”
“Unavoidably, between 1970 and 2016 Nigeria recorded thousands of oil spill incidents, which resulted in loss of millions of barrels of oil to the environment which led to devastating environmental degradations; precipitate extensive and damaging environmental pollution which progressively destroyed farmlands and marine habitats. Available records for the period 1976 to 1996 indicated that approximately 6 per cent, 25 per cent, and 69 per cent of total oil spilled in the Niger Delta area, were in land, swamp and offshore environments respectively.”
He added, “Some major spills in the coastal zone are the GOCON’s Escravos spill in 1978 of about 300,000 barrels, SPDC’s Forcados Terminal tank failure in 1978 of about 580,000 barrels and Texaco Funiwa-5 blow out in 1980 of about 400,000 barrels. Other oil spill incidents are those of the Abudu pipe line in 1982 of about 18,818 barrels. The most publicized of all oil spills in Nigeria occurred on January 17 1980 when a total of 218,935 barrels of crude oil got spilled into the environment; this spill occurred as a result of a blow out at Funiwa 5 offshore station (which led to the establishment of Clean Nigeria Associates in 1981). Others are the Jesse Fire Incident which claimed about a thousand lives and the Idoho Oil Spill of January 1998, of about 40,000 barrels.” Recovery/Mitigation Akpan stressed that the negative effects of oil spill may eventually fade away, but in many cases the long term effects remain several years after, sometimes even decades, before an area or ecosystem will fully recovered from a spill that caused extensive damages.
He added that the seriousness of oil spill impact is mostly a function of the speed of recovery of the damaged habitats and species.
Recovery, he added, depends upon both the removal of oil which is toxic from the environment and restoring the ecosystem, by replanting, introduction of cultured species threatened by extinction.
He said: “The key parameter for evaluating recovery success, is the reproductive success of the survivors, the influx of larvae, eggs, juveniles or adults present in the oil impacted area. The seriousness of impact and the speed of recovery of the affected habitats and species following an oil spill will to a large extent be determined by factors such as the oil type, oil thickness onshore, type of ecosystem, local geography, climate/season, the vulnerability and sensitivity of the species, biological and physical characteristics of the area and the type of clean up response strategy adopted.
“Generally, recovery will proceed faster in warmer climates and on rocky shores compared to cold climates for example, marshes. The long-term effects on deeper bottoms (i.e., if oil sinks and is absorbed in bottom sediments) is also a matter of concern.”