On and off for almost four years now, vast quantities of dead seaweed have been washing up along beaches in The Gambia.
The “Smiling Coast” of West Africa, as the country is affectionately known, has long been popular with tourists who enjoy its white sandy beaches and the lodges that are nestled among clumps of coconut palm. But near three fishmeal factories located in the fishing villages of Gunjur, Sanyang and Kartong, decomposing seaweed has become a menace.
The stench of the brown algae can be unbearable for nearby businesses and residents. Tourism has suffered, with swimmers unable to get into the water, and visitors avoiding the beaches.
Small quantities of seaweed are common in a marine ecosystem, especially after storms. But since the arrival of the fishmeal facilities, an enormous amount has been washing ashore, along with dead fish. The foreign-owned factories grind down small, open-ocean fish such as bonga and sardinella into powders and oils for aquaculture and livestock industries overseas. At the same time, they pump into the ocean untreated wastewater, full of phosphates that promote the growth of the algae that suffocates marine life.
As well as campaigning, activists in Gunjur have collected samples of wastewater from the nearby Golden Lead fishmeal factory, and sent it to a company called Reef Analytics in Germany to be examined.
According to Ahmed Manjang, a leading activist and microbiologist in Gunjur, the wastewater contained “high quantities of organic matter that caused eutrophication”. This is the term for excessive richness of nutrients in the water, which in turn leads to excessive growth of plants that then decompose, depriving marine animals of oxygen.