A study of the socioeconomic status of the fisherfolks of Badagry coastal waters as well as species composition, distribution and diversity of the coastal waters was conducted for 12 months (January 2014-December 2014 ) in Badagry Local government area using two purposively selected prominent fish landing sites of Yovoyan and Gberefu and monthly sampling of catches revealed the presence of 64 species from 39 families in Badagry coastal waters of Lagos State, Nigeria. Eight of the 64 species which were predominant include Pseudotolithus senegalensis, Trachinotus goreensis, Tilapia zilli, Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus, Polydactylus quadrifilis, Ethmalosa fimbriata, Pomadasy jubelini and Sphyraena piscatorum in the coastal waters of Badagry, Lagos State, Nigeria . The eight most predominant fish families in terms of number were Scianidae (10.4%), followed by Carangidae (9.02%), Cichlidae (8.6%), Polynemidae (7.7%), Pomadasidae (6.7%), Clupeidae (5.2%), Claroteidae (4.1%), Sphyraenidae (3.53%) and others (44.8%). Gberefu lagoon waters was richer in species than Yovoyan marine water front. Lausanne Index of Abundance recorded for Badagry coastal waters was 94.0 while Margalef’s index (a measure of species richness) was 8.03. A high level of heterogeneity of stock was observed as revealed by Simpson Index of 0.018 recorded. The value of Diversity indices such as Jaccard,s coefficient calculated to be 0.88 showed there was great similarity in species composition between Gberefu and Yovoyan. Shannon-Weiner Index of general Diversity (Hi) value was 0.33 showing dominance of some species in the coastal waters of Badagry. Evenness Index (E) of 0.082 showed all the species were not equally abundant in the waters. The author recommends the need to protect the existing stock especially the monospecific families like the Osteoglosidae and Gymnarchidae through regular monitoring of the physicochemical parameters of the coastal waters which are highly susceptible to industrial pollution, Lagos State being a highly industrialised State. More funds should be committed by the government to researches on population dynamics and biomass estimate of our coastal waters.
Keywords: Coastal, Diversity Indices, Predominant., Socioeconomics, Species Composition
