Gambians Fight Chinese Fishmeal Factory as Fish Prices Soar, Stocks Fall
Image: Eva Msrtensson / Getty Image
As foreign-owned fishmeal factories proliferate in West Africa to supply feed for overseas aquaculture operations, prices for a key staple of the local diet are skyrocketing and Gambian fishers find it increasingly hard to compete against industrialized trawlers.…
GUNJUR, GAMBIA – Edrissa Sackh stands on Gunjur beach, a small frown developing on his face as he mends his net. The remote fishing town of 25,000 people overlooks the North Atlantic Ocean, where Sackh, 31, has been fishing for 16 years. “They are taking the fish,” he says with bated breath, pointing toward two Chinese mechanized fishing vessels in the sea. “Right now there are no fish and we need fish.”
A few inches away, his small hand-painted wooden canoe sits idle. Strong winds mean “there can be no fishing today,” he explains. But the trawlers he sees in the distance can handle such weather. “Their boats are big industrial ones, not like ours.”
When fishers aren’t taking to the sea, they, villagers and fish traders are taking to the streets. Ongoing protests have hit Gunjur since Golden Lead, a Chinese-owned fishmeal factory, opened in 2016. The community is suing the company over pollution generated by the facility. Ten protesters have been arrested and put on trial over the past two months.
Edrissa Sackh and his captain Abdulai Camara mend their fishing net on Gunjur beach. These small-scale fishermen catch the majority of fish critical to food security. (Image credit: Nosmot Gbadamosi)
Gunjur is an hour’s drive from Gambia’s capital of Banjul, along a stretch of open road and winding tracks with few cars. Fishing is the cornerstone of life here.
Read the full article on The New Humanitarian. Reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
PUBLISHED ON NEWS DEEPLY/The New Humanitarian, JULY 2018
FINALIST FOR ONE WORLD MEDIA 2019 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT AWARD