The Socioeconomic Characteristics of The Artisanal Fisherfolks in the Coastal Region of Ondo State, Nigeria.

The study was carried out in the coastal region of Ondo –State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Two LGAs, namely, Ilaje and Ese-Odo were purposively selected because they fall within the coastal region of the state. At the second stage, ten towns/villages were randomly selected from each LGA. At the third stage, 20 respondents were also selected from each of the villages/towns, making a total of 400 respondents. Data were collected using well structured questionnaire, interview schedule and Focus Group Discussion (FGD), which were administered on the respondents. The result of the socioeconomic characteristics of the fisherfolks with respect to age revealed that most of the fisherfolks were within the working age group of 31 – 60 years and this amounted to 68.75% while 84.0% of the fisherfolks were married. The percentage of the male were 67.25% while the female were 32.75%. The household size of (1-5) members recorded the highest (56.75%). 96.25% had one form of education or the other while only 3.5% had no formal education while 90.0% of the fisherfolks had no additional qualification. Most of the fisherfolks were Christians (82.75%), 76.25% took fishing as their major occupation while 48.25% were not involved in any other occupation. The fisherfolks that had fishing experience of (11 – 20) years amounted to be 34.0%. most of the fisherfolks (43.75%) got their inputs from the markets and are rightful owners of their inputs. 85% of the fisherfolks made used of dugout canoe to carry out their fishing activities while 60% of the fisherfolks made used of the active methods of fishing. Keywords: socioeconomic, characteristics, artisanal, fisherfolks, coastal regio