Supplies in the Gambia fisheries sector

There are two main distinct sources of fresh fish supply in the Gambia. These are the Marine and river fisheries supplies and to some extent, imports of processed fish products.

The industrial catches have remained around 8, 500 tones per year since 1992, following a pronounced decline in catches from a level of 23,000 tones. This was said to have happened due to the cessation of a fishing company that targeted the small pelagic stocks and to a lesser extent, reduction in the number of licensed fishing vessels.

Since the industrial fisheries are mainly composed of foreign industrial vessels, practically all the output of industrial fisheries are landed in ports of the foreign countries. The artisan fisheries sub-sector of the Gambia provides about 90% of the domestic fish supply and employs the majority of Gambians in the fishing industry. Artisan fisheries revolve around the use of small fishing craft, consisting mainly of a fleet of approximately 2,000 canoes operating in marine and river fishing areas. The estimated average of the artisan catches in fish between 1997 and 2003 is said to stand at 29,000 tones per year.

During some periods of the year, it is estimated that about 200 people operate in Kemoto with catches mainly on Shrimps and Bobo Croakers. An estimation of about two tones of shrimps and fish are usually landed daily at the centre. The shrimp and fish caught are transported without ice to Kerewan by river transport, which takes about 2 hours from where they are transported to Barra and Banjul to be sold to fishing companies. This practice is due to lack of adequate availability of ice or insulating containers at the centre and it’s surrounding.