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kajaw
70 Posts |
 Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 17:25:58
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It is brought to my knowledge that Foreign fishing vessels are depleating our fish stock and are bringing toxic waste to our waters. How true is it and is it with the knowledge and blessing of the regeme?
Some one also suggested that various ships are being regestered and flying gambian flags who are involved in shady deals all arround the world. could anyone knowledgable in this area inform us.
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 18:59:45
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Well i dont know about that but west africa, has the largest register of cruise ships in the world yet none of us travel by cruise ship or ever seen one. It is called Flag of Convenience.
May be some one will help us. Infact i just do not want to name the country, but that country has the worlds largest register of cruise ships yet its people are struggling or lucky to have two legs or arms. It is located between Guniea Bissau and Equatorial Guniea. |
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blackerberry2004
69 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 19:09:50
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| Go ahead and say it. It is Liberia. |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 19:43:32
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| You are right. I am not saure how many Liberians have ever seen cruise ships but yet they fy their countries flag. It shows one thing that there is money to be made. |
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Dalton1
3485 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 19:53:34
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Kajaw,
About two years ago, i remember some headlines on vessels that were fishing illegally in our territorial waters. I think, they were chineese-i will double check my source, hopefully.
Territorial integrity at any level must be respected, and it be only fair that while they want to utilize our waters for food gathering, that the business be interdependent, where Gambians will get their niche of the whole deal. I am sure, there might be some underground operations, which to a large scale will deprive Gambians of the job opportunies that God bestowed with them. The river Gambia is one place where we can burst our economy. We've all seen how many Gambians Fisco OB conateh employed. I don't know if he is still in operations, but such is worth emulation. |
"There is no god but Allah (SWT); and Muhammad (SAW)is His last messenger." shahadah. Fear & Worship Allah (SWT) Alone! (:
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 21:19:23
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| Licenses should be given to companies that will add value to the fish products and creat jobs for Gambias. Our fish are being depleted yet even sardnes have to be imported. It should be a condition for adding value. I am sure they will. |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 02 Aug 2006 : 23:52:37
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the country is Liberia and at one time this was a major source of revenue for the government.
on my flight back from home i met a Dutch guy who told me a story. apparently he had heard about the cost of Fishing Licences in The Gambia on his previous trip. so when he went home he contacted some people in the fishing business so they can get the Licence since it was ''too cheap''. according to him, they laughed at him and told him they are already fishing in gambian waters because no one is looking.
if this is true then its a capacity problem, as it can be difficult to police all those waters since boats go from one part of senegal to the other!! |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 00:43:08
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| Penalties are also very cheap. There used to be Gambian inspectors on every fishing boat. I dont know if that practice is still happening to enforce rules. Weare loosing our "cash cow" right before our eyes |
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toubab1020
12311 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 13:52:36
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| I have read this topic one thing that nobody has mentioned is that in The Gambia MOST people rely on fish for its nutritional value, meat being unafordable to most with the fish going out of the country there are limited supplies left for us,what does shortage bring? you got it, higher prices,wages having remained static for some time and jobs at a premium,a problem,shortly many people will have to eat pallasas(don't know the spelling!)every day,something that I for one would not like. |
"Simple is good" & I strongly dislike politics. You cannot defend the indefensible.
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 15:23:49
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quote:
Originally posted by njucks
the country is Liberia and at one time this was a major source of revenue for the government.
on my flight back from home i met a Dutch guy who told me a story. apparently he had heard about the cost of Fishing Licences in The Gambia on his previous trip. so when he went home he contacted some people in the fishing business so they can get the Licence since it was ''too cheap''. according to him, they laughed at him and told him they are already fishing in gambian waters because no one is looking.
if this is true then its a capacity problem, as it can be difficult to police all those waters since boats go from one part of senegal to the other!!
The Gambian waters are amongst the richest in fish stocks yet the most unprotected. I once met a north african before 1994 when many couldn't figure out where exactly was Gambia. Often confused with Zambia i guess because of its footballing prowess. But to my surprise this north african immediately knew Gambia, simply because he told me that the fsihing trawlers he had been on had poached many times from Gambian waters. I looked at him in awe, though angry there was little i could do. We need alot of resources to secure the maritime resources. There was a time when the Gov't of Luxembourg assisted in provided an aircraft for patrols. I don't even know whether its still on. Though the Gambia Navy with its little resources do go out on patrols but they too are constrained with fuel, right equipment. Besides the physiccal resources handicap , honesty is also in short supply. Officers of the navy have been accused in the past as taking bribes from foreign vessels found guilty of using the wrong net sizes or poaching. Some of the hardworking ones are frsutrated because after risking their lives at sea to bring offenders to book, they are released by their superiors or some gov't officials.
So as i always advocate for, for us to develop first and foremost ATTITUDES MUST CHANGE. |
madiss |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 18:36:43
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quote:
Originally posted by MADIBA
quote:
Originally posted by njucks
the country is Liberia and at one time this was a major source of revenue for the government.
on my flight back from home i met a Dutch guy who told me a story. apparently he had heard about the cost of Fishing Licences in The Gambia on his previous trip. so when he went home he contacted some people in the fishing business so they can get the Licence since it was ''too cheap''. according to him, they laughed at him and told him they are already fishing in gambian waters because no one is looking.
if this is true then its a capacity problem, as it can be difficult to police all those waters since boats go from one part of senegal to the other!!
The Gambian waters are amongst the richest in fish stocks yet the most unprotected. I once met a north african before 1994 when many couldn't figure out where exactly was Gambia. Often confused with Zambia i guess because of its footballing prowess. But to my surprise this north african immediately knew Gambia, simply because he told me that the fsihing trawlers he had been on had poached many times from Gambian waters. I looked at him in awe, though angry there was little i could do. We need alot of resources to secure the maritime resources. There was a time when the Gov't of Luxembourg assisted in provided an aircraft for patrols. I don't even know whether its still on. Though the Gambia Navy with its little resources do go out on patrols but they too are constrained with fuel, right equipment. Besides the physiccal resources handicap , honesty is also in short supply. Officers of the navy have been accused in the past as taking bribes from foreign vessels found guilty of using the wrong net sizes or poaching. Some of the hardworking ones are frsutrated because after risking their lives at sea to bring offenders to book, they are released by their superiors or some gov't officials.
So as i always advocate for, for us to develop first and foremost ATTITUDES MUST CHANGE.
You are right Madida. Attitude should change. Gambians are not nationalistic. We dont like our own. May be we should start with civic education and citizenship at evry early on in school. I would not mind that every morning in school students recite the National Pledge standing up and it be reinforced to them the need to protect and serve their country.
We seem to have no iota of national pride. Even the music we listen to is foreign. We dont patronise our own people. Independence Day is meaningless without it being graced by some foreign band. no body would listen to Mass Lowe, Tata Dinding, Jaliba or Mam Tamsir at the Stadium. They are literally scraping a living. Invite foreign musicians, then tickets sell out weeks before the event.
Infact even Governmenet fundraisings are graced by foreign musicians. I am in for every one but we should begin to love our own. There is a mandinka saying: SI BI JANG DUBENG which clearly describes Gambians. In literal translation it means the shadow of a tall palm tree. If you look at a palm tree, its shadow provides shade not to its base but away from the tree it self. Therefore it only provides comfort to others whilst its back yard is in flames. Again no one should be forced to listen to our local musicians or regulating air time on the Radio. It has to come from personal desires and love for country. I dont think loving ones country is asking too much of citizens. |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 18:54:23
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quote:
Originally posted by kondorong
..........Even the music we listen to is foreign.
.......no body would listen to Mass Lowe, Tata Dinding, Jaliba or Mam Tamsir at the Stadium. They are literally scraping a living. Invite foreign musicians, then tickets sell out weeks before the event.
you're very funny?? . once agian should we kindly request DJ to play a minimum % of gambian music???
but seriously i think patriotism is better than nationalsim.
but i know at nursery/primary school we had assemblies in the morning and we had to sing the national anthem as well as other songs.
i sound like a fool asking this, after what i just posted but do we have a National Pledge??? |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 03 Aug 2006 : 19:22:17
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| Yes. The pledge is even better than the anthem i think. It instills self worth and patriosim. |
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dbaldeh
USA
934 Posts |
Posted - 04 Aug 2006 : 18:17:19
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Guys, you have touch on one of our most viable natural resources - The Gambian waters/Fisheries. I am not an expert in the fishing industry, but this is one area Halifa Sallah continues to talk about.
The Gambian waters are known to the international community as very lofty area to fish. There are hundreds of ships that fish illegally in our waters and they mainly come from the subregion. In the early 90s the Gambia government contracted with a french company with small airplanes to conduct Surveillance in our waters purposely to catch illegal boats shipping in our waters.
This company was based at the airport and they worked with our marines to catch boats fishing in our waters. Basically, what they did was fly over our border with the international waters and capture the licensing registration of these boats. Then once they capture the information, they immediately contact the marines to go after those boats. The marines then escort the boats off shore and arrest the people in the ship. I personally flew in one of those airplanes as an air traffic control officer and went on several trips in the early hours of the morning to catch these illegal boats. One morning we saw seven boats fishing illegally in our waters and the marines were able to capture three and the others escaped into the international waters.
Interestingly, these boats when caught are find over one million dalasis for illegally fishing in our waters. What the government do with the money is completely a different story. Sometimes they don't even pay because of corruption.
The point here is that these ships are so devasting to our fishing resources that their fishing nets capture all kind of fish even the infants that are suppose to grow and breed. This in effect, wipes out any long term sustainability of the resource in our waters.
Halifa Sallah have long advocated that the government should instead allow investors to come in and register their boats so they can fish legally in our waters. They can also set up factors like Sesco Conateh and employ more Gambians in the industry. These are some of the simple economic strategies the government should explore to make best use of our resources. Unfortunately, if you have a government that don't know and would not listen, it is our economic resources that is depleted by other people who knows how. Gambian waters and land resources are enought to give our people the economic prosperity we need. We have what it takes to compete, but sadly we can't because of technical know how simple as that.
Hope that information helps.
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Baldeh,
"Be the change you want to see in the world" Ghandi
Visit http://www.gainako.com for your daily news and politics |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 04 Aug 2006 : 18:32:20
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yOU ARE RIGHT bALDEH. Enforcement is a problem in the gambia. The enforcer unfortunately becomes the culprit. We cannot supply europe with fish when back at home sardines are scarce or too expensive. We need to add value to our products even if it means reduced taxes for the forein companies.
In the long run, it ensure technology transfer( both human software and technical hardware), generate employment locally and also earns foreign exchange. These benefits far outway the reductions in taxes for them. Infact employment leads to increased income tax, less crime, and savings from law enforcement which also leads to stability and more foreign direct investment.
Ethiopia airline did wit with Delta airlines i believe and today they have one the best in Africa competing with the lkes of Kenya Airways and South Africa. Infact they are doing far better that a regional company of Air Afrique.
ADD VALUE PLEASE. ADD VALUE PLEASE. |
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