By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Yesterday, at the EU Press briefing at the EU Delegation in Fajara, the Minister of Fisheries, Hon. James Gomez revealed that the Gambia Government has agreed to an offer for “the possibility to fish 3,300 tons of tuna .. as well as 750 tons of hake per year in the Gambian Waters. In return, the EU will pay The Republic of the Gambia a financial contribution of €550,000 Euros per year.”
Some basic calculations show that going by these figures alone, the agreement dubbed the Sustainable Fishing Partnership Agreement (SFPA) will value Gambian fish at a price of 136 Euros per ton. According to a report by the Food, Agriculture, Organisation published in January 2018 the prices of Tuna and Hake are as follows; €1,290 Euros per ton of Tuna and €1,740 Euros per ton of Hake.
More videos below questioning the agreement and how it will coordinate with Senegalese and Chinese Investors already operating in the Gambia. When will it be enough for the Gambia to say we can’t continue to open our waters to more fishing activities at the expense of our local businesses? A question posed directly to the EU Ambassador was for him to confirm if Gambia will ever be allowed to fish in EU waters?
The last video below questions if the EU will spend any more money on Illegal, Unregulated, Unreported (IUU) fishing in the Gambia? The Hon. Minister of Fisheries alluded to the fact that IUU could take Millions of funding in an earlier statement. The National Assembly member for Banjul has already stated that the agreement should be scrapped. In that light how will the Hon Minister of Fisheries pass the agreement in the National Assembly?