Holistic Determinants of Occupational Health Problems Associated With Coastal Fishing in Rivers State

The work focused on holistic determinants of occupational health problems associated with coastal fishing in Rivers State. The study used cross-sectional descriptive research design. The population of coastal artisanal fishermen association members was 2,051 with a samplesize of 410 drawn from multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for the study was structured questionnaire with a reliability index of 0.87. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of percentage, mean and standard deviation. Findings were insecuritymenace (2.83±0.47), upstream fishing exercise (2.61±0.73), and downstream fishing valuechain activities (2.72±0.55), all of which constituted holistic determinants of occupational health problems to high extent. The study thus recommended that Nigeria with other Gulf of Guinea states should increase security surveillance which could go a long way to reducing ‘insecurity menace’ for coastal fisherfolks, the coastal artisanal fishermen association members should have a plan in place on how to immediately move their injured members for prompt medical attention, the government should resume implementation of regulations on net-mesh sizes and check-mate clashes by these fishermen cluster communities, and women with other persons who often involved in fishing value-chain activities should occasionally arrange for safety officers to train them on better techniques to avoid injuries.