Marine Litter, Marine Mega-Fauna Species and Communities’ Knowledge to Identify Marine Species and Ecological Roles along Ilaje Coastal Communities in Ondo State, Nigeria

Maintaining coastline hygiene is important for marine ecosystem conservation strategy. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to investigate the marine litter, marine mega-fauna species and communities’ knowledge to identify marine species and ecological roles along Ilaje Coastal Communities in Ondo State, Nigeria using appropriate standard procedures. The field survey yielded 6,047 with mean litter density of 2.02±1.58 item/m2. A significant relationship existed between the types of marine litter (x2 =144447.778, df = 17, p < 0.05) and study sites. Ten marine mega-fauna: Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncates), Spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris), Hump-backed dolphin (Sousa teuszii), Olive ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), Leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriace), Tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), Scalloped Hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini), Bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas), African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis) and Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) were reported. Out of 339 respondents sampled, 193 had poor knowledge of marine mega-fauna identification while about 86% had no idea of ecological roles of these species. The predictors of knowledge of marine mega-fauna identification among Ilaje coastal communities were age (β = 0.24, p < 0.05) and years of residency (β = 0.25, p < 0.05) while educational background is the predictor of knowledge marine mega-fauna ecological roles (β = 0.02, p < 0.05). The study showed that there were positive and significant relationships between respondents educational background and their knowledge of marine mega-fauna ecological roles (r = 0.02, p < 0.01). This study recommends among other things, designating the Ilaje coastline in Ondo State, Nigeria as marine mega-fauna conservation site.