The Fishing Industry in Sierra Leone has waited for a fish harbor complex for
over 40 years since 1970, with many promises from our major international
development partners. The construction of a fish harbor remains the main
impediment for unlocking the wealth from the fisheries sector of Sierra Leone.
The membership of the Sierra Leone Industrial Fishing Company Association
(SLIFCA) is aware of the planned fish harbor construction project at Black
Johnson beach area which is executed by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine
Resources, with funds granted by the Chinese Government. We would like to
inform the public of Sierra Leone and overseas that our membership is in total
support of this proposed project for the following reasons:
1) As stakeholder group in the fisheries sector, our Association has been part of
the negotiations for the establishment of the fish harbor both at local and
international level. As main end users of this project, we strongly support its
implementation.
2) The industrial fisheries sector is currently challenged with berthing,
bunkering, vessel maintenance, cold storage and processing facility,
transshipment, vessel inspections and catch offloading, packaging materials,
and required capacities for middle level manpower in refrigeration, net mending
and marine engineering. All these will be addressed as part of the technical
backstopping which the fish harbor project will provide for our people.
3) The Fish harbor will provide entrance channels and interior channels to allow
free movement of our fishing trawlers and other vessels for anchoring areas or
turning basins, including support facilities for refueling, vessel repairs, bonded
stores for wrapping materials, fish processing platforms including cold storage
facilities for renting and other vessel bunkering facilities. All these will provide
jobs for thousands of our Sierra Leonean fish processors, fishermen and fishing
financiers.
4) A fish harbor complex will provide opportunity for our fishing vessels to
offload and transship catches on the shores of Sierra Leone instead of at the
ports of other countries.2
5) Our membership is currently constrained with limitations of adequate berthing
areas for our fishing vessels, which have made some of our vessels to choose
other countries for doing business. We have lost fishing investments to our
neighboring countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal where fish
harbor complexes are available.
6) All of our Tuna Vessels (over 60 tuna purse seiners) licensed by Sierra Leone
Government and Fishing in the waters of Sierra Leone do not currently transship
their catches in Sierra Leone due to the absence of a fish harbor complex.
Available designated berthing areas in the country do not meet the minimum
standards for offloading and transshipment of fish from tuna vessels. This
reduces enormous revenues and economic returns for both the fishing industry
and the Government of Sierra Leone
7) We would like to particularly point out to our people of Sierra Leone that the
MFMR and SLIFCA is unable to enforce the required regulations for inspection of
tuna vessels and other large fishing trawlers due to the absence of fish harbor
complex in our country. This undermines the monitoring, control, surveillance
(MCS) and the enforcement of hygiene and sanitary controls required for our fish
and fishery products to access International markets, including the European
Union
Based on the above reasons, we need to set the records straight both inside and
outside of the country that referring to this project as a fish meal project or a rain
forest sold out to the Chinese Government or Chinese Business interests is far
from the truth. We would like to stress that the Black Johnson Beach area was
chosen and demarcated for the fish harbor, only after the Ministry of Fisheries
and Marine Resources and our International development partners had done
extensive environmental and social studies on several sites including the Kissy
Dockyard Area, Murray Town Axis, Tagrin-Lungi Axis,Tombo Axis, that Black
Johnson Beach area was chosen as the best suitable site for the fish harbor, with
the least impact on resettlement of local communities and other social and
environmental issues.
Signed:
- Bassem Mohamed
President, SLIFCA & Managing Director, Sierra Fishing Company - Annie Joy Toure,
Vice President, SLIFCA & Managing Director Annsenkal Fishing Company
3) Alhaji Ibrahim Konteh,
Secretary General, SLIFCA & Operations Manager, OK Global
Fisheries Company
