The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Amadou Jallow
11 November 2008
The collection of data on the fisheries of The Gambia started from the 1950s to the late 1970s. According to data collected by the Daily Observer column Fisheries, manuscripts were prepared in 1980, mostly by outside observers on short visits to the Gambia.
Although farming was and is still the predominant occupation of the Gambian people, rural communities were fishing on subsistence basis using simple fishing tools such as traps, cast nets, etc.
A fisheries statistical system was not in place before 1976 to estimate artisan fishery production nor was adequate fishing effort data collected and catalogued. A study conducted in 1980 estimated that a total number of 83 fish landing sites existed throughout the country with 11 in the Atlantic Coast Stratum (ACS).
A total Number of 712 canoes were also recorded with 290 in the ACS. About 89 per cent of those canoes operating in the ACS were said to have been motorised.
The results of the 1994 Frame Survey of the artisan fishers operating in the 135 known fish landing sites in the country has also revealed that 62.9 percent of the people engaged in fishing activities were Gambians.
The Fisheries Department has registered noteworthy achievements in the development of fisheries and is credited with having transformed a once foreign dominated sector into a Gambian dominated one.
Meanwhile, the latest Frame Survey conducted in 1997 indicated that there is a total number of135 fish landing sites with the 1785 canoes operating sites, countrywide. Out of this number, 494 canoes were said to be found in the Atlantic Coastal Stratum area, with 87 per cent motorisation.
Although no formal frame survey has been conducted since, field staff stationed in the coastal fishing villages reported a 15 percent increase in 2000. The sector has expanded considerably in the past two decades with new entrants every year.
Since the introduction of motorised canoes in the mid 1960s by a migrant Senegalese fisherman, The Gambia has witnessed the transformation of its fishery sector from paddled canoes with simple fishing techniques to one with modern fishing technologies and larger canoes with outboard engines.
This has resulted to an increase in fish landings.
This development was the result of the policy adopted by the Fisheries Department in particular and the Government of The Gambia as a whole in providing credit facilities to fishers.
The fisheries sector is the major supplier of animal protein and probably has the greatest potential for making a positive and immediate impact on the country's long-term development goals to achieving equitable income distribution, consistent with the general improvement of the status of people in rural areas.
Unfortunately, the records of the fish catch levels from the 1950s up to the late 1970s could not be traced out. From enquiries conducted, it was revealed that staff of the Fisheries Department started collecting fisheries data during the 1970s.
It also emanated from these enquiries that proper records management was a constraint in those days, thus resulting in the loss of many documents. It is interesting to note that the apparent trend is an upward one.
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