Abstract
A six months investigation on the environmental impact of fish cage culture on surface water and sediment of the Lagos lagoon were studied monthly from February 2011 to July 2011. Samples were collected from three stations, 1 (upstream of cage culture site), 2 (cage culture site) and 3 (downstream of cage culture site) between 07:00 and 11:00 h. During this period, the surface water ranged between 23.34 ± 3.39 – 23.79 ± 1.52°C, depth ranged between 0.91 – 0.99 m. The lowest DO value and highest biological oxygen demand (BOD) (mean = 4.43 and 6.00 mg/L) was recorded at station 2, respectively. These values may be due to the required oxygen used to break down fish wastes and excess feed pellets from the fish cage at this station. The analysis of variance test on parameters of water samples collected showed no significant difference (p>0.05) among the three study stations while the analysis of variance test on the sediment samples collected showed significance difference (p<0.05) in ammonium and total organic carbon among the study stations. There is a need for future development initiatives to focus on best management practices (BMPs) for low impact, ecologically sound and sustainable aquaculture.
Key words: Lagos lagoon, fish cage, water, sediment and Nigeria.
