By Adama Makasuba
The Gambia Ferry Services has warned fishermen against laying their fishing nets on the ferry’s routes after.
This warning came as Kunteh Kinteh ferry, the largest and fastest ferry in the country was forced to briefly halt operation due to its entangled in fishing net between Banjul and Barra.
Lamin Jawara, General Manager of Gambia Ferry Services disclosed this to reporters at the Banjul ferry terminal over the weekend as he explained that “on Wednesday around 8:00 Kunteh Kinteh Ferry was incapacitated in mid sea, all its engines were shutdown and the ferry was unable to move on its own. This happened because the propellers were entangled in the fishing net.”
Being that fact that fishing contributes to the nation’s economic growths, he urged fishermen to fish responsibly in the waters by not encroaching on the routes of the ferry between the two landing terminal stations.
Meanwhile, he disclosed that he has spoken to the alkalo of Barra and “our security unit and currently they are doing their investigations to establish who the owner (of the nets) is.” Adding they had also engaged the communities and security units about such issues affecting the ferry on the waters.
Pa Dawda Sanyang, acting deputy Director of Operation disclosed that they just installed three new engines in their ferry about a month ago before it entangled the fishing net lay across the water.
He explained that when such incident happened it will force the engines of the ferries to shutdown.
“And sometimes it creates much more impacts and when that happened, it is something that we cannot fix quickly. We, therefore, calling on those people who are engaging in such practices to desist from it because it is having negative impacts on ferries.” he added.