3. DESCRIPTION OF FISHERIES

The marine fishery resources of Liberia are exploited by two fisheries:

1. the artisanal canoe fishery operating in estuaries and shallow inshore waters and extending from the shoreline to a depth of 20–40 m;

2. the industrial trawl fishery supposedly operating in open deeper waters, and targetting at finfish or shrimp.

Liberia has a fairly good potential for various types of fisheries which are practised in different ecological sectors. Figure 6 gives a diagrammatic representation of exploited stocks on the shelf and location of present-day and possible future fisheries.

3.1 ARTISANAL FISHERIES

There are three types of artisanal fishing units:

1. the Kru dug-out canoe (less than 6 m long and with a moulded depth of about 60 cm, and with 1–3 men);

2. the standard canoe (medium-sized) with a crew of 3–5 men; and,

3. the large Ghana-type canoe (either dug-out or planked) with a length of about 12 m, and with a crew of 12 persons or more.

The Kru fisherman usually fishes alone, but his small dugout canoe can carry a crew of up to 3 men. The Kru canoes are propelled by sails or paddles. They fish during the day, departing in the morning with an offshore wind and returning in the afternoon with the onshore wind. The Kru fishermen have therefore a limited fishing range along the continental shelf.

The Fanti fishermen (Ghanaians) employ more developed fishing methods than the Kru. They operate in group companies of up to 20 men, living under one enclosure. The Fanti fishermen are settled at various fishing locations along the Liberian coast, e.g., Bassau, Cape Palmas, Cape Mount and Sinoe.

3.1.1 Fishing Grounds and Fish Landing Sites

Sampling of artisanal fishing units is made on the basis of five administrative coastal regions: Grand Cape Mount, Montserrado, Grand Bassa, Sinoe and Maryland. Available data indicate a greater concentration of canoes in Montserrado and Grand Bassa regions. The distribution of artisanal fishing units, fish landing sites and ethnic groups along the Liberian coast is shown in Table 1.

3.1.2 Artisanal Fishing Vessels and Gear

Three main ethnic groups are engaged in artisanal fisheries: the Kru (Liberian ancestry), Fanti and Ewe (Ghanaian ancestry), and Popoh (Togolese ancestry).

The fishing community has 3 000–4 000 fishermen concentrated mostly around estuaries with high densities of fish. The major fishing centres are Monrovia, Marchall, Buchanan, River Cess, Greenville and Harper. The small Kru canoes dominate in the artisanal sector. They are used by the Kru and Popoh and propelled by paddle and sail. Kru fishermen set off to fish in the morning with an offshore breeze and return in the afternoon or evening with the onshore breeze. The larger Ghana-type canoes are equipped with side-mounted outboard engines of 10–15 HP. The Liberian multispecies fisheries are exploited with a variety of gears: cast-nets, ring-nets, drift-nets, beach-seines, set gillnets and hooks on line.

A classification of artisanal fishing gears used in Liberia is given in Table 2. The target species caught by various gears are indicated in Table 3. Most artisanal fishing units operate throughout the year except for the artisanal purse seining which only takes place in the dry season. Historical trends in the development of Liberian canoe fishery are shown in Table 4. According to the records of the Bureau of Fisheries, Monrovia, the artisanal fishery has had a relatively low rate of development as evidenced by the numbers of registered canoes during the period 1960–81.

Artisanal fishing is influenced by the season, depth of water and type of fishing craft used. Fishermen employing the dug-out Kru canoe cannot operate in rough sea conditions. Besides, there are seasonal changes in abundance of exploited stocks as well as fluctuation in catches and catch rates which affect fishing patterns. Hence, there are full-time and part-time fishermen (sea below:)

The Liberian artisanal fisheries are still poorly developed. The target species caught by canoe fishermen are bonga, sardine and carangids. The development and management of artisanal fisheries face the following limiting factors:

1. lack of capital for development, particularly for the part-time Kru fisherman;

2. existence of many unstable dug-out canoes and use of inefficient fishing gears;

3. resistance to adopt modern fishing innovations; and

4. predominance of non-migratory artisanal fishermen.

3.2 INDUSTRIAL FISHERIES

The industrial trawl fishery is directed to several demersal finfish (croakers, grunts, threadfins, seabreams, sea perches, etc.) and coastal penaeid shrimps. Industrial fisheries for deep - sea sparids and deep -sea shrimp are still to be developed. The biomass and yield potential of fish stocks off the slope are not yet estimated. But judging from information for adjacent waters, the abundance of the exploited stocks in Liberian waters is modest.

Several fishing companies were licensed to fish within the EEZ of Liberia in 1985, viz.

1. Worldwide Seafood Inc. and the American - African Commodities (AMAFCOM) have amalgamated with Mesurado to form a new company MESAFCOM operating in Liberia under the franchise of Mesurado Fishing Company. Twelve shrimpers are involved in the joint operations;

2. The Italian-Liberian Fishing Enterprises (with four stern trawlers);

3. The Liberian Fishing Industry Company with one operating trawler;

4. The TELAMA Fishing Corporation which is now mostly involved in the importation of fish; and

5. The Sea Gull Fishing Company.

Trawl fisheries for finfish and shrimp have existed in Liberia for over two decades. There is variation in fishing efficiency of various industrial fishing companies.

MESAFCOM which operates under the franchise of Mesurado Fishing Company mainly exploits the Sherbro stock in the sector between Bassa and Cape Mount. Each vessel has a crew of 8 persons including one captain and an engineer. The fishing trip lasts 14 days of which two days are for steaming to the fishing grounds and back to port. Each vessel makes four hauls per day and each haul lasts 2 hours.

The Italian-Liberian Fishing Enterprise has four smaller trawlers. Each vessel has a crew of 4 persons including a captain and engineer. A fishing trip lasts 5–6 days of which one day is for steaming out of port and back to port. Each vessel makes five hauls a day, each haul lasting for 2 1/2 hours. The Italian-Liberian Fishing Enterprise mainly exploits the Sherbro stock in the sector extending from Yokoba to Grand Bassa.

According to available records the following fishing companies make daily trips, leaving port in the morning and returning in the evening:

1. The Liberian Fishing Industry Company with one trawler operating in 1984 (one vessel sank off Bassa in July 1983);

2. The Sea Gull Fishing Corporation with one trawler; and

3. The Telema Corporation with one trawler but not operating in 1984 when the author visited Liberia.

Each vessel of the above-mentioned companies carries a crew of 10 persons including a captain and an engineer. A trawler makes three hauls, each lasting for 3 hours. The above listed companies mainly operate off the Grand Cape Mount coastal region.

Trends in the evolution of the industrial fleet exploiting bottom fish in Liberian waters is given in Table 5. Vessel characteristics of the trawler fleet owned the defunct MESURADO Company in 1979/80 are shown in Table 6 whereas characteristics of the twin boom shrimp trawlers of Continental Sea Food (CSF) are indicated in Table 7. The structure of the industrial fleet (various vessels) currently operating in Liberian waters is shown in Table 8.

The shrimp resources exploited in Liberia are similar to those fished in adjacent waters. Of the three penaeid species that occur in the shrimp catches of this West African region, Penaeus notialis is by far the dominant species in the catch, followed by Parapenaeopsis atlantica, a small coastal species found in waters to 20 m depth, and Parapenaeus longirostris, which occurs in low abundance in waters of 100 to 400 m depth.