Effect of Environmental Adult Education on EnvironmentallyUnfriendly Methods of Fishing in Rivers State

Abstract

The study examined how environmental adult education can promote environmentally-friendly methods of fishing in Rivers State. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. Descriptive survey design was adopted. Accidental/convenience sampling technique was used to obtain a sample of 461 artisanal fisher folk among the target population in Rivers State. The questionnaire on EUFMFIQ was face and content validated by experts from the Departments of Adult and Non-Formal Education and Measurement and Evaluation. Reliability of 0.94 was obtained using Cronbach Alpha method. The research question was answered using mean statistics, while the hypothesis was tested using independent t-test analysis. The result revealed that of all the environmentally-unfriendly methods of fishing, the artisanal fisher folk choose fishing with nets with tiny holes as their most environmentally-unfriendly method of fishing. The hypothesis revealed that there is no significant influence on the knowledge gained and the stoppage of the practices of environmentally-unfriendly methods of fishing among the target population. It was recommended among other things that fisher folk should be introduced to other areas of agriculture like fish farming (fish pond) to sustain them in their period of hardship.