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“The only thing you can take with you wherever you go is the food in your belly.” These words on ice are uttered by a veteran seafood vendor at the weather-beaten Creek Road Market in Port Harcourt, Rivers State as she tries to convince me to purchase a huge, cold-eyed Croaker. Gladys Samuel has been a seafood vendor for twelve years and the years before that were invested in learning about the delicate art of seafood trading from her mother and grandmother. This is the life she was born into, a life centered on the riverine waters and the creatures that live in them. Like most of the vendors we encounter, she has chosen an area of specialization - catering to customers who need giant seafood ranging from the Red Snapper, the ‘Shine Nose’ and the whiskered Catfish. Creek Road Market is the hub for the trading of seafood in Port Harcourt given its strategic location beside Nembe Waterside where the fishermen berth and offload their catch from the oceans and fishing pots. Seafood lovers throng the market to make purchases and a few admit that they come here because they are assured of the cheapest and freshest produce. Trading in seafood is a combination of fire and ice. While fresh seafood needs ice to ensure its continued health, dry seafood has to be properly processed through fire to ensure its longevity. Dry fish is a staple in Nigerian meals and ranges from the popular bonga fish to mangala fish to asa, to smoked catfish. As with Gladys, Madam Gilia, the amiable dry fish seller admits that she has been trading in fish since she was a girl-child. She was raised on the seas and has lived off the seas. Speaking of the seas, how does the seafood get to the market? Fishermen are the missing link and I head off to Nembe Waterside hoping to catch a fisherman with a day off. Captain Sunday, the chief pilot of the King George Akasa fishing boat is my lucky catch. He is friendly and thoughtful as he shows me around his boat and regales me with tales of his fishing adventures. I have been told fantastic stories of fishermen who are able to tell the variety of fish in the water just by observing the moon and I am eager to know if Captain Sunday has any of these superpowers. Captain Sunday cheerily assures me that he employs a more pragmatic approach to fishing than moon-watching. After they prepare their fishing nets, he forays with his crew at midnight into the oceans and sets baits and nets. They wait a few hours and then start reeling in their catch between 5 am and 8 am. Thereafter they head to fishing pots and trade their produce with the retailers who continue the production cycle until it gets to the final consumer. Easy right? Wrong. Captain Sunday avidly describes sea storms which can sweep your vessel from one end of the ocean to the other while you clutch the wooden boards and hope for the best. There are also manmade misadventures in the form of pirates who waylay their vessels and rob them as the spirit wills. There are dark days when the ‘water is bad’ perhaps due to migration as the fish leave their usual haunts and swim farther away to feed, reproduce or are simply drawn away by ocean currents. Why does he continue in this life-threatening venture? It is all he knows. His mother had him in a canoe at three months and tossed him in the ocean at five months. He has lived with the seas all his years and all he wants is a bigger, better boat to continue his trade. His dedication and singular focus are the stuff legends are made of. He promises a ride on his boat the next time he berths as he shows off the tools of his trade. As long as there is seafood in the oceans, there will be fishermen to reel them in on nets made of strength and dedication. There will be vendors to sell, buyers to buy and me, to tell the story of how it all fits together.