Water Pollution, Fish Migration and the Plight of Fish Famers: A Biblical-Contextual Analysis

Abstract

The relationship between unethical activities in the water zones and fish migration in ancient Israel and contemporary Rivers State (R/S) cannot be overemphasized. This study focused on the linkage between unethical activities and fish migration in ancient Israel and especially, contemporary R/S of Nigeria. This work utilised the Historical-Grammatical method for analysis of Biblical text of Hosea 4:3c and survey method for gathering of data from 583 respondents in R/S. The data collated were subjected to Simple Percentage Ratings and Content analyses. Accordingly, findings revealed that in Hosea 4:1-2, dysfunctional community relationships (w^e’en-chesed) manifested in destructive activities (pārats), while Hosea 4:3c echoed the attendant consequences as fish migration owing to excessive fishing motivated by greed. Similarly, in Rivers State, the unethical use of chemical and explosive as fishing gear was attested to by 89.4% of the Residents. Equally, a whopping 84.9% of the respondents believed that there was a reduction in the amount of fish brought home from fishing activities due to recent use of chemicals and explosives as part of fishing strategies. Residents from fresh water zone applied gammalin20 while those of saline water zone used dynamite as fishing techniques. This resulted in non-selective mortal damage, which left water sources stinking after two days. Thus, was detrimental to the economic life of families that depended on fishing for livelihood. Therefore, the role of residents and the government remains imperative for the environmental remediation in Rivers State as this will ameliorate the economic downturn of fish farmers.

Keywords: gammalin20/dynamite, fishing strategies, fish migration, coastal rivers state, family livelihood, hosea 4:3c

DOI: 10.7176/JEES/9-9-04

Publication date:September 30^th 2019