The Gambian Department of Fisheries and The Gambia Navy operating on board the Sea Shepherd vessel Sam Simon have arrested a trawler for fishing in an area reserved for artisanal fishermen.
The fishing vessel Niam Niokho was arrested for several counts of fishing within The Gambia’s nine-nautical mile Special Management Area in less than a month. The incursions were confirmed both by the vessels’ own fishing log book as well as the fisheries observer’s fishing log. The Niam Niokho is presently detained in the Gambian Port of Banjul.
The joint operation has already seen the arrest of three industrial trawlers for a number of fisheries offenses.
The waters of The Gambia are particularly rich in biodiversity, as the country is positioned where the nutrient-rich Gambia River meets the Canary Current. The livelihoods of over 200,000 Gambians are directly or indirectly dependent on local fisheries while the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that more than 46 percent of the assessed fish populations in the Eastern Central Atlantic are being over-fished.
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