1.0 Introduction
Fisheries resources are on the reduction in Nigeria due to over exploitation and inadequate management of her coastal waters (Lawson and Olusanya, 2010). For sustainability of these resources, an adequate knowledge of species composition, relative abundance of her water bodies must be understood and actively pursued (Lawson and Olusanya, 2010).
Different species in a given area is the fundamental unit in which to assess the homogeneity of an environment and community used in conservation studies to determine the sensitivity of the ecosystems and their resident species while rare species is relative to other species in a given community and are usually describe for a single tropic level (Lawson and Olusanya, 2010).
Nigeria is blessed with abundant natural aquatic resources in Marine, Estuarine and Freshwater environments. The freshwater components are within extensive river systems, lakes, flood plans and reservoirs scattered over the entire land surface area of over 4,212, 500ha (Ita, 1993) as cited by (Obasohan and Oransaye, 2006). Nigeria also has (8) coastal states namely; Ogun State, Lagos State, Ondo State, Delta State, Bayelsa State, Akwa-Ibom State and Cross River state.
The fish fauna of the Nigerian freshwater system has been the focus of research for quite sometimes. Some of the researcher are Welman (1984); Banks et al., (1965); Akinyemi (19850; Idodo-umeh (1987) and Ita (1987). These studies concentrated more on rivers, with less attention on the lakes and wet lands yet they produced a variety of reports on the Nigerian Freshwater.
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