“Fishmeal is one of the main drivers for IUU fishing in Gambia,” says Dr Dyhia Belhabib, principal investigator, fisheries, at Ecotrust Canada. “Just one trawler can have a significant negative impact on fish stocks, but the monitoring is not there.”
Like many countries in the region, the Gambia has little capacity to know what is happening on its waters. “We have a 200-mile exclusive economic zone, but the patrol vessels we have currently do not have the capacity to do the surveillance operations. They only go out for 60 miles, so they cannot protect our water,” explains James Gomez, minister for fisheries and water resources.
“Gambia faces quite a challenge as its waters are surrounded by three major coastal fishing states – Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea Bissau – where there’s extensive fishing activity going on. Vessels go from one state to the other and they can potentially just fish in Gambia [without permission],” says Duncan Copeland, executive director of fisheries intelligence organisation Trygg Mat Tracking.
To compound its difficulties, a lot of the trawlers fishing in the Gambia are licensed in neighbouring Senegal, returning to ports in that country’s capital, Dakar, which has become a major hub for fishmeal processing. “You have an issue with the fisheries department and other agencies [in the Gambia]not necessarily always being familiar with how these vessels are operating,” adds Copeland.
In an effort to regain control of its waters, the Gambian government last year requested Sea Shepherd’s help in carrying out patrol operations, following its recent direct-action campaigns in Gabon, Liberia and Tanzania.
Operation Gambian Coastal Defense began in August 2019, working with sailors from the Gambia’s navy and with law-enforcement agents from the fisheries department, who have been going out on patrols on Sea Shepherd vessels including the Sam Simon.