Amadou Sarr, a spokesperson for the fisher folk in Tanji on Tuesday called on the Navy to be extra vigilant in discharging their duties since some operators of foreign fishing trawlers sometimes use nets that are banned by the Fisheries Department.

"They (foreign fishermen) sometimes come at night and use the wrong nets to fish. They also interrupt our work at sea because they have very big boats and nets." he said.

Elucidating on his work, Amadou Sarr Said when catches are too high, sales drop drastically. He said they sometimes spend about D5,000 (five thousand dalasis) on fuel in a fishing trip. He said if their sales are poor, the cost of fuel would impact negatively on their earnings.

Mr. Sarr continued to say that catches are not bad at the moment especially with the fish called 'Bonga' Mr. Sarr said he is a Gambian, but 80% of the fishermen in Tanji are non-Gambians; adding that the work of these non-Gambians is sometimes interrupted by personnel of the Immigration service who go there to look for those that have not complied with the Immigration rules.

He called on Gambians to venture into the trade. Mr. Sarr said the fisheries department has already shown them the size of the nets they should use when they are out at sea.

Mr. Sarr said they use the profit gained from the trade to pay school fees for their children and solve other family problems.

Mr. Sarr said, "We have applied to the fisheries department for loans but we are yet to have loans from the department." Also speaking to this reporter, Mba Kaddy Jaiteh a fish monger at the Tanji fishing centre said their major problem is that they don't have a proper smoking facility to smoke fish, "We suffer a great deal during the rainy season because our corrugated iron sheets are very old. Getting fire wood to smoke fish is another problem we do grapple with sometimes"'

Mrs. Jaiteh called on the authorities to help them to acquire a proper smoking centre and also provide them with a place at the Serrekunda market. She said the fish mongers at Tanji can export fish to other countries if they have the links. She concluded that the fish mongers in Tanji are all Gambians. In our last edition when the deputy director at the fisheries department was approached by this reporter concerning loans, Mr. Famara Darboe told Foroyaa that his institution has stopped giving out loans to people because it is very difficult to recover them form debtors, but he said the fisher folk who want loans should contact the micro finance institutions such as SDF, VISACA, AFFECT etc; that these are the institutions that are well placed to give out loans as they have the expertise and capacity to manage and recover loans.