GAMBIA RECEIVES TRAINING IN FIGHT AGAINST IUU FISHING

Gambia receives training in fight against IUU fishing. Last week, 20 fisheries inspectors from the Republic of The Gambia received training in control techniques to fight and deter Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).

The training ended with a practical exercise in the fishing port of Banjul, allowing fisheries inspectors from The Gambia to discover new methods of fisheries control and to become familiar with EFCA‘s e-learning platform.

The theoretical and practical training was organised in the framework of the PESCAO programme, financed and implemented since 2018 by the European Union.

Fisheries inspectors from various Gambian administrations needed to become familiar with the different techniques and applicable regulations, in the context of the recent membership of the Republic of The Gambia to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) and the sustainable fisheries partnership agreement signed with the EU.

Gambian fishing industry

With 80km of coastline and a continental shelf area of 4,000km2, The Gambia offers the ideal environment for industrial fishing.  Within this continental shelf area, there are commercially viable stocks of demersals, crustaceans, cephalopods, molluscs, and pelagic (sardinella, red mullet, horse mackerel, cranx, shads, cat fish, grunts, jacks, and snappers).  The Gambia’s fishing industry is currently dominated by artisanal activity and industrial fishing is still a largely untapped area of opportunity.  With further population growth, increasing urbanisation and high cost of other animal proteins the already high demand for fish is set to rise.

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