Despite the global clamour for the eradication of child labour in agriculture, children in developing countries
continue to be prominent actors in the fisheries sector though their contribution is unrecorded in the national
income accounts of many countries. The study examined the involvement of children in artisanal fisheries in
Ondo State, Nigeria. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select 90 children aged 9-18 years who
were involved in artisanal fishing activities. Descriptive statistics were used to present the data gathered for the
study. Pearson Product Moment Correlation and the Chi-Square analysis were used to test the study hypotheses
at the 0.05 level of significance. Respondents were mostly males (70%) with mean age of 15 ± 2 years. Fishing
experience for two-thirds was over 7 years. Major economic activities engaged in by children were fishing
(100.0%) and fish marketing (97.8%). All respondents fished more on rivers, lakes, creeks and canals with
friends mostly in the mornings (70.0%) between 4-5am (43.3%). Mean daily catch per caput per day amounted
in monetary terms to N317. Income increased significantly with age of children (r = 0.27, p< 0.05).
Respondents’ major constraint was lack of capital to purchase nets and boats of their own (97.8%). Sustainable
involvement of children in artisanal fisheries can help alleviate poverty as the children remitted their incomes to
their parents for food, school fees or other school needs. Children’s capacity for production can be boosted
through capacity building and greater access to fishing equipment and capital assets used in fishing. Scholarship
programmes should be put in place to encourage children who do well at both school and fishing to further
develop the quality of future manpower available for fishing in the coastal areas.