Nigeria is blessed with diverse water resources that range from resources of the inland and marine waters. However, the country has not adequately channeled these resources into use for water-based tourism. Several socioeconomic gains obtainable from marine and coastal tourism, as one of the fastest growing forms of tourism, have been utilized by many countries. Therefore, this article reviewed coastal and marine tourism and highlighted its prospects from relevant literature as it relates to tourism development in Nigeria. Identification of aquatic resources in Nigeria and their sustainable utilization for tourism will offer the country several benefits of diversified economy, which is capable of withstanding the instability of an oil-based monoeconomy. Some of the prospects of coastal and marine tourism that Nigeria can tap include revenue generation, job creation, and resource conservation, among others.

Aquaculture has shown capacities to serve as means of livelihood, improve living standards, provide employment and generate foreign exchange in many countries. Recent investment in Nigerian aquaculture has been target towards catfish farming. However, small quantity and poor quality fish seeds are one of the problems limiting production. Consequently, Lagos State government introduced improved breeding and hatchery management practices as a package to fish hatchery operators with the aim of improving fish seed quantity and quality in the state. Nevertheless, the dissemination of the package has not yielded the desired result. This study assessed the constraints to adoption of improved hatchery management practices among catfish farmers in Lagos State. With structured questionnaire, 150 catfish farmers, randomly selected from 12 local government areas spread across Lagos State were interviewed. Despite that majority of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed to the fact that improved hatchery management practices have positive impacts on breeding, hatching, and survival of fish fry, majority of them affirmed that high cost of acquisition, high technicality in using the improved management practices as well as inadequate information about the improved management practices are primary reasons for non-adoption of some of the improved practices. Some of the limitations faced by the respondents include insufficient capital, lack of technical expertise to use the methods adequately, non-availability of inputs, expensive cost of facility maintenance, poor information dissemination and insufficient technical support from the extension agents and the state government. Although the adoption of improved practices has not been total, due to these constraints, the farmers' knowledge of the improved hatchery management practices is broad. There is a need for the state government to subsidize the improved hatchery technologies and inputs, in addition to making them available to the farmers; frequently organize training workshops, and motivate more farmers to adopt the technology by providing credit facilities, incentives, and significant inputs.

During the last decade, hatchery infrastructure and table fish production systems have been exclusively targeted towards catfish production in Nigeria. These efforts have not translated to sufficient domestic fish production. The shortfall in demand for fish fry and fingerlings by growing population of fish farms in Lagos State confirms the fish seed production deficiency. This study investigated the level of awareness of improved hatchery management practices among fish farmers in Lagos State. Using simple random sampling method, 150 fish farmers from 12 local government areas of Lagos State were selected and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were male (68 %) and married (76.6 %), with dominant age range of 41–50 years (55.3 %) and a farming experience of 5–10 years (68 %). Personal saving (46.7 %) and cooperative societies (31.3 %) were the respondents’ main sources of fund and fortnight visits by extension agent was of commonest frequency (86 %). Extension agents and research institutes ranked first and second, respectively, among the sources of information, and accounted for the main sources of information to the farmers. The farmers either strongly agreed or agreed on almost all the hatchery management practices, while they expressed their need for advisory and input support services from government and non-governmental organizations. The significant relationship which exists between age and marital status, and farmers’ awareness shows that greater communication of improved hatchery management practices will lead to adoption, thereby increasing the output of the farmers. Improved hatchery output will lead to greater availability of fish seeds for table size production as well as greater income to the fish farmers. In addition to more intensive extension efforts, other channels of information notably mass media should be revitalized in delivering improved management practices to the fish farmers.

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in developing countries have been associated with production and deposition of hazardous wastes in aquatic environments. Heavy metals are major components of these wastes which have been implicated in several metal-related diseases and food poisoning in man. This study evaluated iron, lead, cobalt, nickel, chromium and cadmium concentrations in water, sediment, Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and African river prawn (Macrobrachium vollenhovenii) samples of Lake Asejire, Oyo State, Nigeria. The concentration of these metals was determined spectrophotometrically in three locations along the course of the lake. Results revealed that only iron and lead were detected in water samples. However, all the metals were found in sediments, Nile Tilapia and African river prawn. Iron had the highest mean concentrations (mg kg -1 ) of 2.392±0.015, 7.4314±1.184, and 1.6100±0.099 in sediments, fish and prawn respectively. Significant differences was found across each sample type for the metals determined. The detection of these metals in Lake Asejire call for close environmental monitoring and adequate public awareness. This is necessary to discourage further pollution which could lead to high metal concentration and metal poisoning.

This study evaluated the proximate, mineral elements, and vitamins composition of oven-dried Schilbe mystus, Bagrus bayad, Oreochromis niloticus, Clarias anguillaris and Petrocephalus bane bane from Tiga Reservoir. The fishes were obtained from landing site of Tiga reservoir at Rano, they were beheaded, degutted and cleaned with distilled water and oven-dried to a constant weight at 105°C. Grinded form of samples were used for wet digestion and the contents were analyzed according to standard methods at the Biochemistry laboratory, University of Jos, The proximate content of the fishes varied significantly (p<0.05), with mean values of 4.79 - 9.52 g/100 g moisture content, 42.20 - 57.71 g/100 g crude protein, 0.90 - 12.51 g/100 g ash content, 3.41 - 9.93 g/100 g ether extract, 0.62 - 5.08 g/100 g crude fibre, 12.28 - 42.70 g/100 g nitrogen free extract and 90.48 - 95.21 g/100 g dry matter. Based on the FAO/WHO recommended nutrient intakes (RNIs), calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc were found in appreciable amount. The vitamin content of the fishes were above the WHO recommended limits, peak values of vitamins B1 (33.88 mg/l), B6 (15.83 mg/l), B12 (3.04 mg/l), were observed in P. bane bane alone. Whereas, C. anguillaris, O. niloticus and S. mystus contained the highest values of vitamins A (15.87 mg/l), C (1.22 mg/l) and E (4.22 mg/l) respectively. It has shown that all the fishes could be utilized as sources of protein, mineral elements and vitamins for human and animal foods.