{"id":40077139,"date":"2019-11-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/china-dialogue-ocean-staging.darkbluehq.com\/uncategorized\/11980-fishmeal-factories-threaten-food-security-in-the-gambia\/"},"modified":"2022-02-10T23:01:29","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T17:31:29","slug":"11980-fishmeal-factories-threaten-food-security-in-the-gambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/ocean\/11980-fishmeal-factories-threaten-food-security-in-the-gambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Fishmeal factories threaten food security in the Gambia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once-peaceable fishing communities along the Gambia\u2019s south-west coast have been split over the arrival of three fishmeal-processing factories.<\/p>\n

At first, many locals believed the new industry would bring much-needed jobs, and village elders welcomed the pledges of financial support for building roads and local markets. But over time, local environmental groups grew increasingly concerned by pollution from untreated waste coming from the factories. Youths demonstrated, there were clashes with factory supporters and several protesters were arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family abandoned me because of my activism. My mum is not talking to me as regularly as before because she feels that I am now disobeying her,\u201d says Sulayman Bojang, who was arrested with four other youths without charge in July 2018 for protesting against the Chinese-owned Golden Lead fishmeal factory in Gunjur.<\/p>\n

Now more people are joining the campaigners\u2019 calls for the three factories to be shut down amid growing concerns that overfishing for the three factories is depleting fish populations, a crucial source of protein and livelihoods for Gambians. Fishmeal is made by grinding up wild-caught species and predominantly used to feed farmed fish of higher value.<\/p>\n

How the factories hit fish stocks and raise prices at local markets<\/h2>\n

\u201cSometimes it goes up to one week without fish,\u201d says fisherman Assan Ndong, standing on the shore where groups of women wait with plastic basins to clean the fish when a boat comes in.<\/p>\n

Paradoxically, the beaches of Ndong\u2019s village of Gunjur are strewn with decomposing fish: with no controls on the numbers fishing with the hope of supplying the factories, fishers often catch too many for the factories to process. Spoilt fish is dumped and washes up on the beaches.<\/p>\n

Ndong, and other locals, increasingly blame their shrinking catches on the factories. Golden Lead was the first to begin operations in Gunjur in September 2016. Two more majority Chinese-owned factories have since opened in the fishing villages of Sanyang and Kartong, clustered along a 30km stretch of the south-western coastline.<\/p>\n

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Artisanal fishermen, such as Ndong, are finding they cannot compete with mechanised fishing trawlers and an armada of fishers paid in cash to supply the factories before local markets. Many of these come from neighbouring Senegal and Guinea Bissau. They are all going after the small pelagic fish, predominantly bonga and sardinella, that have been historically abundant in the Gambia\u2019s biodiverse waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne local fishing boat might catch 100 baskets, but now one trawler can catch up to 1,000 baskets a day,\u201d says Ndong. \u201cIf this unsustainable fishing method continues, we will have a scarcity of fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gambia is Africa\u2019s smallest nation, enveloped by Senegal, its borders looping around its namesake river. But it has also become a global hub for the fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) industry that is rapidly expanding on the coasts off north-west Africa. The majority of Gambia\u2019s FMFO produce is exported to China, which has the lion\u2019s share<\/a> of the booming aquaculture market. It is also used for animal feed.<\/p>\n

Two separate investigations by international NGOs \u2013 Greenpeace International and Changing Markets Foundation \u2013 have recently warned that the scale of Gambia\u2019s FMFO production is unsustainable and the nation\u2019s food security is under threat if the industry is not curtailed.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace Africa\u2019s \u201cA Waste of Fish\u201d<\/a>, published in June, examines the impacts of fishmeal processing in Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, where a total of 50 factories have sprung up in recent years. It is estimated that 4-5kg of fresh fish are used to make 1kg of fishmeal.<\/p>\n


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