Red Alert In Rivers State Over Fishes Washed Ashore

There is red alert in Rivers State over people harvesting tones of fishes washed ashore in several riverine communities.

The Rivers government has already waded in to commence investigation while warning people to steer clear, against fears the hungry might be tempted to harvesting them..

The near comatose state of the economy has put millions of Nigerians under pressure forcing many into desperate preoccupations just to survive.

This is worsened by pessimisms surrounding the coronavirus strain that has led to millions of death around the world.

Until recently when deaths by the virus became common-place, pessimistic theories had permeated a lot of communities and circles holding them from observing necessary safety protocols.

Rivers show that the areas of the state where the fishes had been sighted included

in Amariari, Lighthouse, River 7, Agaja, Uku-Mbi, Mbisu 1, Mbisu 2, and Ifoko communities in Bonny Local Government Area, and in Oyorokoto and other communities in Andoni Local Government Area.

Reports indicate that a team of young men – Godswill Jumbo, a journalist; Humphrey Buowari; Kelly Brown; and Kindness Brown, all executive members of Finima Youth Congress (FYC), had already visited the affected areas, discovering that croaker, popularly known as ‘Broke Marriage’ and called ‘Onah’ in Ibani dialect were majorly the fishes seen ashore.

“The fish were seen lying dead and littered along the shoreline from Lighthouse all the way to Ifoko on the fringe of the boundary between Bonny and Andoni LGA. The fish were also sighted dead and floating on the sea and being washed ashore by waves.”

“We also received and verified reports that several communities along the Atlantic shoreline across the area referred to as the Gulf of Guinea is affected too. These include Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Akwa Ibom States in Nigeria.”, they reportedly said in their report

“Only the Croaker was affected across all the observed affected areas; The dead fish were always turning up fresh in the mornings along the shores; The fishermen observed out at sea that some of the fish kept popping up on the surface of the water and some were alive when sighted only to be struggling to stay alive and then they die.

“Within 2 nautical miles from Lighthouse the fish were all dead but beyond that and as far as the Fairway Buoy many of the fishes were sighted alive only to die later; on the body of the fish, swellings were sighted looking like a lesion or boil. When pricked something like pus would be excreting from it; the fish begins to rotten from the tail as against the head.

“The fish begins to turn green when it begins to get rotten; when spread out on the fire to dry, unlike normal fish, these do not thoroughly dry up, instead they would disintegrate or scatter” their report which given expression in Thisday added.