3. FISHING OPERATIONS

3.1 Fishing Craft (Vessels and Canoes)
3.2 Fish Landings

3.1 Fishing Craft (Vessels and Canoes)

Only in Ghana and Senegal has a marine fishing tradition been long established, and in other countries the majority of fish have been traditionally caught in swamps, lakes, rivers and coastal lagoons. Intensive fishing by Europeans in the Region started in the 1920's off Morocco with exploitation of the sardine stocks which were landed for canning and export to Europe. At about the same time, South European nations such as Portugal, Spain and Italy started trawling for hake and sea breams which were then sold fresh in the home country. In the 1950's, the waters were more extensively fished for tuna by boats from the Bay of Biscay that came seasonally into the area. Later the tuna trade increased to such an extent that tuna transhipment points were set up at Pointe Noire, Tema, Abidjan, Monrovia, Freetown and Dakar, and tuna boats stayed in the Region throughout the year.

The industrial fisheries of the foreign-based long distance fleets began on a large scale in the early 1960's with medium to large size trawlers, using midwater and high opening bottom trawls. The trawling fleets were principally from the USSR, Poland, German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Ghana, and the catches were initially for human consumption. Since 1969 fishing fleets from Norway, Bermuda and South Africa entered the fishery, operating medium-sized purse seiners fishing for large factory ships, and the catches were reduced to fishmeal and oil. These foreign-controlled operations take place mainly in the areas of high concentration of fish, off the Mauritanian, ex-Spanish Saharian and Moroccan coasts, and to a lesser extent off Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Since the start of extension of fishing limits, particularly by Mauritania and Senegal in 1972, the intensity of these operations has been reduced, although it is still not known with certainty how many foreign-based vessels are fishing in the Region.

Inshore and nearwater trawlers are based at all ports along the coast, namely Casablanca, Agadir, Nouadhibou, Dakar, Freetown, Monrovia, Abidjan, Tema, Lomé, Cotonou, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Douala, Libreville, Pointe Noire and Matadi. There is also a large fleet of inshore trawlers based on the Canary Islands. These trawlers are predominantly catching fish for the local market. However numerous foreign-owned trawlers based in Nouadhibou are often catching cephalopods and sea bream just for export to Japan. Shrimp trawlers are also catching shrimps for export at various points along the coast, and they are based in Senegal, Liberia, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon. The only coastal countries that have long-distance freezer trawlers are Ghana and Cameroon. The vessels predominantly fish in the ICSEAF area.

Purse seining vessels are particularly numerous along the Moroccan coast where they catch sardines. The purse seiners based in Nouadhibou, Dakar, Banjul, Abidjan, Tema and Pointe Noire predominantly catch sardinellas. The purse seiners operating out of Abidjan and Nouadhibou are capable of sustaining fishing trips of about one week, whereas the purse seiners operating out of Dakar and Pointe Noire are smaller and normally undertake daily trips. The large fleet of purse seiners based in Tema are of a small size and are part of the semi-industrial fishery of that country.

The fishing vessels of the Region are for the most part relatively old. For example the Ivory Coast fleet is on average more than 7 years old, and over half of the Moroccan trawling fleet is reported to be more than 15 years old. Many of the larger vessels in the Ghanaian fleet still consist of vessels bought second hand in the early 1960's. The principal problem with old fishing vessels, wherever they may be based, is one of shortage of spare parts. For example, in Ghana in 1971, it was estimated that over 40 percent of the inshore fleet was not able to put to sea due to the unavailability of spare parts.

Table 3.1 Approximate number of locally-based vessels (1965)

Country	Tuna vessel	Distant water trawler	Trawler	Purse seiner	Long liner
Morocco	-	-	132	303	-
Mauritania	-	-	4	2	3
Senegal	1	-	34	1	12
Guinea	-	-	6	1	-
Sierra Leone	-	-	10	-	-
Liberia	-	-	9	-	-
Ivory Coast	4	-	27	32	6
Ghana	-	12	222	-	-
Togo	-	-	1	-	-
Benin	-	-	6	1	-
Nigeria	-	-	12	-	-
Cameroon	-	-	21	-	-
Equatorial Guinea	-	-	10	-	-
Gabon	-	-	5	-	-
Sao Tome and Principe	-	-	1	-	3
Congo	-	-	10	3	-
Zaire	-	-	15	-	-
Total	5	12	525	343	24

Source: Lagoin and Salmon (1967 and 1970)

Table 3.2 Approximate number of locally-based vessels (1974)

Country	Tuna vessel	Distant water trawler	Trawler	Purse seiner	Shrimper
Morocco	-	-	132	3032/	-
Mauritania	-	-	50	20	-
Senegal	42	-	17	16	63
Gambia	-	-	-	8	-
Cape Verde	10	-	-	3	-
Guinea Bissau	-	-	41/	-	-
Guinea	-	-	10	-	-
Sierra Leone	-	-	8	-	-
Liberia	-	-	5	-	20
Ivory Coast	4	-	22	22	10
Ghana	33	18	3602/	-	-
Togo	-	-	2	-	-
Benin	-	-	7	-	12
Nigeria	-	-	48	-	15
Cameroon	2	2	24	-	12
Equatorial Guinea	-	-	10	-	-
Gabon	-	-	10	-	-
Sao Tome and Principe	-	-	-	-	-
Congo	-	-	10	3	-
Zaire	-	-	18	-	-
Total	91	20	692	375	132

^1/ Pour Algerian boats previously based in Nouadhibou
^2/ Includes vessels that also purse seine

Source: CECAF Project estimates

Except for Ghana, the number of canoes is increasing in all countries of the Region. In order to obtain a rough estimate of the annual increase in number of canoes in the Region, a comparison has been made of the number of canoes in 1966 and 1974 in Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo. The overall increase in number is 25 percent which means that over nine years the annual increase in number of canoes in the Region may have been 2.5 percent. As far as is known there has been no study undertaken on the average working life of a canoe which would have implications on their rate of replacement.

Table 3.3 Approximate number of canoes (1965)

Country	Non motorised	Motorised	Total	Percent motorised
Mauritania	· · ·	10	10	·
Senegal	3,694	1,824	5,518	33
Gambia	141	73	214	34
Guinea	· · ·	· · ·	1,300	·
Sierra Leone	2,150	114	2,264	5
Liberia	· · ·	· · ·	1,700	·
Ivory Coast	· · ·	· · ·	2,124	·
Ghana	7,090	3,122	10,212	31
Togo	438	25	463	5
Benin	552	14	566	2
Nigeria	· · ·	· · ·	10,000	·
Cameroon	4,150	295	4,445	7
Equatorial Guinea	937	88	1,025	9
Gabon	500	50	550	9
Sao Tome and Principe	1,460	7	1,467	·
Congo	448	12	460	·
Zaïre	84	· · ·	84	·

Source: Lagoin and Salmon (1967 and 1970)

Table 3.4 Approximate number of canoes (1974)

Country	Non motorised	Motorised	Total	Percent motorised
Mauritania	· · ·	· · ·	132	· · ·
Senegal	2,255	4,187	6,442	65
Gambia	123	227	350	65
Cape Verde	· · ·	· · ·	800	· · ·
Guinea Bissau	· · ·	40	· · ·	· · ·
Guinea	· · ·	· · ·	· · ·	17
Sierra Leone	4,887	1,400	6,087	23
Ivory Coast	· · ·	· · ·	2,800	· · ·
Ghana	1,078	7,168	8,238	87
Togo	349	254	603	42
Benin	400	100	500 1/	20
Nigeria	· · ·	· · ·	69,627	· · ·
Cameroon	5,100	800	5,950 2/	13
Gabon	415	185	600	31
Congo	415	85	500	17

^1/ 1970
^2/ 1973

Source: CECAF Project estimates

3.2 Fish Landings

The weight of the marine catch in the Region has increased from 800,000 tons in 1965 to about 3.5 million tons in 1975. This large increase has occurred principally because of a high intensity of fishing activity by foreign-based vessels and a less dominant, although prominent, role played by locally-based vessels and canoes.

The catch of Soviet Union vessels (at 1.15 million tons) is particularly large relative to the total CECAF catch. The catches of other non-coastal countries such as Spain (280,000 tons), Romania (71,000 tons), South Korea (31,000 tons) and Bulgaria (25,000 tons) have steadily increased whilst the catches of Portugal (31,000 tons) and Japan (71,000 tons) have steadily declined. Morocco is a coastal country with a consistently high catch exceeding 200,000 tons. The Senegal catch has been showing steady annual increases, to over 320,000 tons, and the Ghana catch has recently shown a slight decline due to failure of the sardinella fishery, although the catch of other species has increased. The Nigerian data need to be treated with considerable caution and may have to be modified, for it is recorded that the 1969 catch was 46,000 tons and the 1970 catch and more recent catches exceeded 271,000 tons. The Sierra Leone catch was increased to 50,000 tons in 1972 on the basis of statistical readjustments of the data.

The data presented in Table 3.5 are for fish landings caught solely in the CECAF Region. The data do not include the fish caught in the ICSEAF Region by Ghana, Cameroon and Congo (although they do include data on the tuna landings).

Table 3.5 Estimates of annual marine catch in the CECAF Region (1964-74)

thousand tons
Base of vessels	Year
	1964	1968	1971	1972	1973	1974
Angola	1.0	1.1	1.0	0.2	1.7	1.7
Argentina	-	0.4	0.6	0.5	0.4	-
Benin	6.3	5.6	5.6	5.9	8.6	7.0
Bermuda	-	-	264.1	253.5	231.1	230.7
Bulgaria	-	6.9	14.1	26.6	20.0	25.4
Cameroon	12.0	22.6	39.5	36.6	36.6	36.6
Cape Verde	2.5	4.9	4.5	4.8	4.4	4.5
Congo	9.0	9.5	6.6	12.4	13.8	7.8
Cuba	-	0.2	8.9	6.4	9.0	8.6
Egypt	-	3.4	11.0	16.1	13.8	1.9
Equatorial Guinea	1.0	3.9	4.3	4.3	4.3	4.3
France	28.3	57.8	47.7	55.2	49.6	54.2
Gabon	1.0	2.6	2.5	3.6	3.6	3.6
Gambia	5.1	4.7	5.0	5.2	9.6	10.0
German Dem. Republic	0.4	5.4	43.0	5.0	· · ·	· · ·
Ghana	68.4	70.7	177.6	227.2	112.3	150.8
Greece	21.4	36.8	40.5	30.7	33.1	· · ·
Guinea	8.0	8.0	8.0	8.0	8.0	8.0
Guinea Bissau	0.5	1.3	1.4	1.7	1.7	2.6
Israel	-	3.6	0.1	-	-	-
Italy	38.2	62.2	64.0	43.9	43.9	35.0
Ivory Coast	1.5	36.9	64.7	82.1	55.9	55.1
Japan	85.7	179.3	104.7	128.0	102.6	126.8
Korea Republic	0.6	13.5	32.6	35.8	54.9	59.8
Liberia	12.9	20.8	29.5	29.5	29.5	29.5
Mauritania	11.8	27.4	63.2	32.1	29.2	13.3
Morocco	167.5	202.9	217.8	234.7	381.5	280.1
Nigeria	53.3	62.7	295.6	321.5	322.7	378.5
Norway	4.4	1.3	201.0	195.4	168.9	79.4
Poland	15.0	32.9	31.9	37.2	34.3	36.6
Porto Rico	2.9	0.8	20.0	30.0	29.6	27.9
Portugal	43.7	47.3	46.7	30.1	28.2	31.1
Romania	-	-	15.9	33.3	43.8	72.0
Sao Tome and Principe	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.8
Senegal	90.1	149.1	221.7	246.9	302.9	345.6
Sierra Leone	29.2	22.6	29.6	50.0	65.7	66.7
South Africa	-	-	-	-	-	-
Spain	3.7	170.4	197.6	199.5	308.1	346.5
Ex-Spanish Sahara	2.3	3.9	4.0	4.0	4.0	4.0
Togo	5.2	5-3	5.5	5.4	5.5	5.0
USSR	163.3	318.6	789.8	848.8	942.7	1,145.0
Zaïre	· · ·	· · ·	· · ·	· · ·	· · ·	· · ·
Total	897.0	1,608.3	3,123.5	3,293.3	3,526.6	3,696.5

Source: CECAF Statistical Bulletin, subject to modification

Table 3.6 Approximate landings of locally-based vessels (1965)

thousand tons
Country	Artisanal	Industrial	Total	Percent Artisanal
Morocco	1.0	230.0	231.0	0.0
Mauritania	0.8	2.6	3.4	23.5
Senegal	83.3	5.2	88.5	94.1
Gambia	3.2	-	3.2	100.0
Guinea	4.0	0.8	4.8	83.3
Sierra Leone	18.0	3.0	21.0	85.7
Liberia	5.0	2.2	7.2	69.4
Ivory Coast	15.0	38.9	53.9	27.8
Ghana	43.2	24.4	67.6	63.9
Togo	4.0	-	4.0	100.0
Benin	3.5	1.0	4.5	77.8
Nigeria	32.0	2.2	34.2	93.0
Cameroon	15.4	11.5	26.9	57.2
Equatorial Guinea	2.0	0.9	2.9	69.0
Gabon	1.0	1.7	2.7	37.0
Congo	1.7	11.6	13.3	1.2.8
Zaïre	0.2	12.5	12.7	15.7
Total or average1/	232.3	118.5	350.8	66.2
Total or average2/	200.3	116.3	316.6	63.3

^1/ excluding Morocco
^2/ excluding Morocco and Nigeria

Source:

Lagoin and Salmon (1967 and 1970)
CECAF Project estimates

Table 3.7 Approximate landings of locally-based vessels (1974)

thousand tons
Country	Artisanal	Industrial	Total	Percent Artisanal
Morocco	1.10	230.0	231.0	0.0
Mauritania	1.0	71.0	72.0	1.4
Senegal	263.0	85.0	348.0	75.6
Gambia	10.0	14.0	24.0	41.7
Guinea	4.0	10.0	14.0	40.0
Sierra Leone	55.0	3.0	58.0	94.8
Liberia	20.0	4.0	24.0	83.3
Ivory Coast	24.0	38.5	67.5	35.5
Ghana	109.0	88.0	197.0	55.3
Togo	3.0	1.0	4.0	75.0
Benin	3.0	4.0	7.0	42.8
Nigeria	378.0	10.0	388.0	97.4
Cameroon	34.0	21.0	45.0	75.5
Gabon	2.0	3.0	5.0	40.0
Congo	5.0	11.0	16.0	31.2
Zaïre	2.0	8.0	10.0	20.0
Total or average1/	913.0	371.5	1,284.5	71.1
Total or average2/	535.0	361.5	896.5	59.7

^1/ excluding Morocco
^2/ excluding Morocco and Nigeria

Source: CECAF Project estimates

In Morocco the three most frequently caught inshore trawled species are horse mackerel (27 percent by weight), small hake (21 percent) and sea bream (14 percent). In Mauritania the sea bream (about 40 percent by weight) and cephalopod (about 30 percent) are most commonly caught, but the composition depends on depth and location of the trawling grounds. The three species which comprise the majority of the weight of Senegal inshore trawler catches are shrimp (21 percent), sole (18 percent) and croaker (13 percent). Much of the fish caught is rejected, so that the resultant species composition landed in no way reflects the species composition of the Catch, in fact it only reflects the technique of capture since the trawlers are mostly aiming to catch only high value species. The Freetown-based trawlers principally catch drum (Larimus peli), followed by common thread-fin (Galeoides decadactilus) and spadefish (Drepane africana). The Ivory Coast trawlers predominantly patch the croaker (Pseudotolithus sp.) followed by the threadfin (Polynemus sp.) whereas about half of the Ghana inshore trawled fish is triggerfish (Balistes capriscus).

The Nigeria fleet predominantly catches small croakers and grunt (Brachydeuterus auritus). The CECAF-caught fish landed in Cameroon are predominantly grunt and shrimp (P. duorarum) whereas the fish caught from the ICSEAF area are mostly hake and horse mackerel. Croaker and threadfins form most of the Gabon and Congo trawl catch. In the Congo where production is blocked by limited distribution and demand, purse seiners never land Brachydeuterus, a small-sized but abundant species. Catches for that species made by trawlers are always discarded. In Ivory Coast where there is a long-lasting shortage in fish supply, purse seiners operating in the Ivorian sector catch and land Brachydeuterus when Sardinella is scarce; the same is true for trawlers when landings (of any species) by purse seiners are insufficient to satisfy the market for cheap fish.

Table 3.8 Approximate species composition of catch by area (1974)

tons
Species	Sub Area North	Sub Area South
Pleuronectidae (flat fishes, etc.)	12,776	18,346
Hakes	93,725	3,100
Sparidae (sea breams)	130,206	4,811
Croakers	29,606	55,987
Pomadasydae (grunts, roncador, etc.)	1,208	28,475
Carangidae (horse mackerels, etc.)	460,688	28,773
Clupeidae (sardinella, sardine, etc.)	924,229	282,651
Pomatomus spp. (bluefish, etc.)	29,373	3,242
Hairtails, etc.	216,585	15,245
Sharks and rays	1,964	5,315
Shrimps and prawns	6,440	· · ·
Crabs	438	· · ·
Lobsters	1,264	6
Crustaceans, unidentified	511	· · ·
Cephalopods	41,550	1,219
Marine fish, unidentified	413,772	250,416
Total	2,364,335	697,587

Sub Area North is North of 10°N latitude; Sub Area South is South of this latitude
Source: CECAF Statistical Bulletin, subject to modification