World Aquaculture 29 Aquaculture in The Gambia Michael A. Rice1, Famara Sambou Darboe2, Ousman Drammeh3, and Kanyi Babanding3 Historically a Portuguese and then a British colony, The Gambia (or simply Gambia), with a population of about 1.7 million, is in the Sahelian Upwelling Marine Ecoregion and has about 70 km of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. Gambia’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles from the low water mark and covers about 5,000 km2 of continental shelf area. With a land area of 11,295 km2, it is the smallest country on continental Africa ranging from about 30 to 50 km in width along the banks of the Gambia River, but stretching about 450 km inland. English is the official language, but the country is surrounded by francophone Senegal on all sides except for the west coast on the Atlantic Ocean. The country consists of roughly three geographic regions, including a lower river region on the coastal plain where the river is generally brackish and tidally influenced inland for about 200 km. The central river region east of Mansa Konko is mostly freshwater during the dry season but also tidally influenced. The tidal amplitude is less than in the lower estuarine portion of the river. There is a non-tidal freshwater upper river region beginning several kilometers east of Georgetown (Janjangbure), where the river channel becomes shallow and more difficult to navigate (Figure 1). Climatologically Gambia experiences a tropical dry season – wet season precipitation pattern, with most of the 990 mm average annual rainfall occurring between July and September. The central river region is the major grain production center of the country Fig. 1. Map of The Gambia showing major cities and towns and the Gambia River that completely bisects the country (CIA 2011). with irrigated paddy farming of rice but production is insufficient to meet national demand. Rice is the most important cereal grain consumed domestically and Gambia is a net importer of all of its cereal grains, including rice. Major exports of the country include peanuts (groundnuts), fish, cotton, copra and palm oils. Banjul, the capital city located on the coast, hosts the largest fish landing port and the country’s sole deepwater seaport and nearby international airport with international flights to neighboring African countries and the European Union (CIA 2011). According to statistics from the Gambian Department of Fisheries, the Gambian people consume approximately 25 kg of fish and other seafood products per capita annually, nearly double the world average, making up some 70 percent of the animal protein consumed by Gambians (Jallow 2008, FAO 2011). Fisheries resources are provided primarily from two sources, the Gambia River and the Atlantic Ocean. The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of fisheries in all Gambian waters has been estimated by the Gambian Department of Fisheries to be about 80,000 t for all fish species, while the current fishery catches have fluctuated between 31,000 and 45,000 t annually in recent years between 1997 and 2009 (FAO 2011). The overwhelming majority of fish production in Gambia is from wild capture fisheries and the gap between current catch and MSY suggests the possibility of some growth in the capture fisheries sector. Despite an average consumption of about 25 kg of fish per year, the distribution and availability of fish is not uniform throughout the country. The vast bulk of fisheries landings occur in the lower river estuarine portion of the Gambia River and along the coast. Transport of fish to interior markets within the country is hampered by inadequate ice-making capacity and lack of refrigerated trucking, so simple methods of salting and smoking are used to preserve fish to allow inland transport. But these simple fish preservation methods reduce the market desirability of fish locally. Additionally the freshwater zones of the central and upper river regions are overfished, leading to local fish shortages, so the Gambian Department of Fisheries estimates that annual per capita fish consumption in the interior regions of Gambia is only about 9 kg, well below national and global averages (Gambia Department of Fisheries 2010). Freshwater Aquaculture Given the prominence of fish and other seafood in Gambian diets, there have been some efforts to introduce aquaculture. The introduction of freshwater aquaculture to Gambia occurred during the late 1970s and
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