Musa O. Bah
Omar Touray, Fishermen at Bakau has called on the Ministry of Fisheries to empower youths engaging in the fishing sector to improve the fishing industry of the country.
Speaking to The Voice on Thursday, Mr. Touray said the youths need to be empowered to have a sustainable life and the government needs to do more to improve the fisheries industry in the country.
“Fish is very important in human life and its source of protein. Most of the people in the country prefer fish to meat because fish does get any injections or drugs like livestock,” he noted.
He told The Voice that 75% of fishermen in the country are Senegalese while the few handfuls are Gambians and most of them leave due to lack of support.
“We don’t have any other work apart from fishing and we are urging the government to support us like the order countries support their fishermen because most of us earned our living in this industry,” he said.
Touray, who has been engaging in fishing for more than 20 years in the country, highlighted the challenges faced by fishermen, saying the industry’s lack of boats and a hike in fuel is something that is also affecting their businesses.
“Our operations are hindered because we travel a long distance at least more than 200km in the sea which consumes more than 60 liters of fuel and a liter costing D73. Every day we buy D6000 for fuel,” he pointed out.
He further urged the government to put more investment into the fisheries industry to empower the youths of this country and the government to reduce the price of fuel and provide industrial boats for fishermen adding this will regulate the shortage of fish and the price of the fish will be cheap.