http://wajfas.unilag.edu.ng/ <p style="text-align: justify;">West African Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (WAJFAS) is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing original research and review articles in Aquaculture and Mariculture; Capture Fisheries; Fish Breeding and Genetics; Fish Diseases and Parasitology; Fisheries Biology and Management; Hydrology and Limnology; Fishing Gear and Craft Technology; Fisheries Economics, Statistics and Extension; Ecology, Biodiversity, Conservation and Aquatourism; Aquatic Productivity, Planktology and Phycology; Fish Nutrition and Feed Technology; Postharvest Technology; Aquatic Pollution and Toxicology; Marine Environmental Management; Marine Meteorology; Marine Geology and Geophysics; Physical, Chemical and Biological Oceanography. The submission of manuscripts that meet the general criteria of significance and scientific excellence are encouraged.</p> Department of Marine Sciences, University of Lagos, Nigeria and Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR), Nigeria en-US West African Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences <p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img style="border-width: 0;" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License"></a><br>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. This&nbsp;journal publishes an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">Authors who publish in WAJFAS agree to the following terms:</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;">3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work</p> http://wajfas.unilag.edu.ng/article/view/1428 <p><em>Macrobrachium vollenhovenii </em>is a decapod that has been widely identified in terms of its economic importance and recruitment into aquaculture. The racial studies of <em>M. vollenhovenii </em>collected from Badagry, Lagos and Epe Lagoons were carried out for 12 months in order to determine the variation among the populations within the interconnected lagoons. The physico-chemical parameters of the lagoons were also determined using standard methods. The result from these physico-chemical parameters reflected environmental differences as a result of the variation in salinity from the three lagoons. Eleven characters (eight morphometric and three meristic) were studied and the results showed significant differences (P &lt; 0.05) in the carapace length, carapace width, egg diameter, dorsal and ventral rostrum teeth with no significant differences (P &gt; 0.05) in the total length, telson length, rostrum length, 3^rd abdominal somite, left cheliped length and the right cheliped length of <em>M. vollenhovenii</em>. The result gave an indication that the populations of <em>M. vollenhovenii </em>from the lagoons are morphologically inseparable. Though, the variations in the meristic and some of the morphometric features could be as a result of changes in salinity gradients from the three lagoons and maybe an indication of genetically distinct populations. Therefore, further work in the search for genetic diversification will require molecular characterization to detect probable variation among the populations. The study provided a concrete and important biological database useful in the species identification, nomenclature, rational exploitation and proper management of the prawn populations in the three lagoons.</p> Mosunmola F. Akinwunmi Rasheed O. Moruf Aderonke O. Lawal-Are Copyright (c) 2023 Mosunmola F. Akinwunmi, Rasheed O. Moruf, Aderonke O. Lawal-Are https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2023-06-12 2023-06-12 3 1 1 8 http://wajfas.unilag.edu.ng/article/view/1709 <p>The present study investigated aspects of the biology and heavy metals concentrations in the flesh of <em>Penaeus monodon</em> from the Lagos Lagoon. 183 samples were collected between July – September 2018 and they were used to study the ageing and growth pattern using length-frequency distribution and length-weight relationship. Food and feeding habits were determined by numerical and occurrence methods while heavy metals concentration was assayed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.&nbsp; The samples consisted of 61 females and 122 males and their total length, carapace length and total weight ranged from 11.5 to 33.0 cm, 4.1 to 14.0 cm and 8.0 to 271.7 g, respectively. Three age groups were obtained from length-frequency distribution. The b values of 3.09 and 3.27 for the carapace length/weight relationship and the total length/weight relationship obtained respectively showed a positive allometric growth pattern of the species. <em>P. monodon </em>fed on green algae, diatoms, crustaceans and fish fragments and their condition factor ranged between 0.6 and 0.9. The sex ratio (1:0.5) showed that males were significantly (p &lt; 0.05) more males than females in the study area. Heavy metals accumulated in the flesh in decreasing order of Fe &gt; Zn &gt; Pb &gt; Mn &gt; Cd &gt; Cu &gt; Cr. The concentrations of Pb, Mn and Cr were higher than the FAO/WHO maximum acceptable values for consumption. This study suggested a potential health risk which could arise from consumption of <em>P. monodon</em> from the lagoon, if relevant mitigating strategies are not enforced.</p> Desmond O. Ugegeh Mosunmola F. Akinwunmi Oluwagbenga O. Olude Olufemi O. Soyinka Copyright (c) 2023 Desmond O. Ugegeh, Mosunmola F. Akinwunmi, Oluwagbenga O. Olude, Olufemi O. Soyinka https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 2023-06-13 2023-06-13 3 1 9 17