30 Years of shark fishing in west africa - Shark Specialist Group

FREIN
(1979-
1983)
Shark fishery
with Portuguese
reported in
Mauritania
1930
Development of Sharks fisheries in the SRFC AREA
1940
Exploratory phase
A Conti’s prospecting
endeavours
1958 1993
Lethargic phase Relaunching phase
followed by a period followed by a period
of expension
of expansion
1970 2003
Phase of rapid
development
and expansion
of the Shark
industry in the
sub-region
Increase in the
fishing effort and
the numbers of
people involved
Phase
of declin
Signifiant and
regular drop in
the catches
and overexploitation
of
several stocks
1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Portuguese, British, Dutch and French
trawlermen is known to have existed at the
beginning of the 20 th century. However, in
both Mauritania and Senegal, significant
Shark fishing only really began in the 1940s.
There have been five phases in the development
of Shark fishing in the sub-region.
• Exploratory phase: 1940 to 1958
Certain Shark species were targeted on the
West African coast as of the 1940s, with a
few experiments carried out on the Petite
Côte in Senegal by European industries
looking for a source of vitamin A. These
experiments did not succeed. The first
period of shark fishing, subsequent to the
prospecting carried out by the oceanographer
Anita Conti (see text box 4), occurred
between the 1940s and 1950s.
Following the decline of European companies,
people of different nationalities
started to work in this industry (Ghanaians,
Burkinabés, and Fulanis from
Guinea) and they begun to explore new
methods (salting and smoking). The Ghanaians
helped bring about the development
of selachian fisheries in the other
coastal countries in the sub-region.
• An idle phase: 1958 to 1970, followed
by a period of expansion
The production of shark liver oil on the
West African coast decreased because of
low yields, competition from the Ivory
Coast where stocks were more abundant,
and the production of synthetic Vitamin A.
Nonetheless, during the 1960s and 1970s,
new Shark fisheries developed in Gambia,
with the arrival of a Ghanaian group of
fishermen. Aware that there was a demand
for salted and dried selachian meat in their
country and that the resource was not
being exploited in the sub-region, these
fishermen developed targeted fishing and
established a network for purchasing the
Sharks accidentally caught by the other
fishermen, in particular the Nyominkas
(Sine Saloum).
• A growth phase: 1970 to 1993, followed
by a period in which the shark fin
market developed, then a consequential
drop in yields
Exploitation of sharks developed rapidly in
the sub-region from the 1970s, and most of
the Sharks were targeted by artisanal fisheries
(Ducrocq et al., 2005), not only for
their liver oil, but also for their meat (especially
their fins), which became the main
reason for their exploitation. There was
also an increase in landings made by artisanal
fishermen, and a rapid and regular
increase in the fishing effort (more boats,
with more efficient fishing equipment). It
should also be pointed out that the development
of specialised artisanal fishing
Text box 4. Prospecting by Anita Conti and the first Shark fishing activities
In her book Géants des mers chaudes (Giants of the warm seas), the oceanographer Anita
Conti describes the experimental fishing activities that took place in the 1940s to evaluate
the fish resources of the West African coast. The aim of these scientific missions was to study
the extent to which fishing activities could be developed in order to feed the populations living
on the coast. Anita Conti’s work focused on Sharks, which were very abundant at that
time. She describes scenes in which sawfish weighing more than 1 tonne were caught, and big
hammerhead sharks 6 metres long, unlikely to be found today. She draws attention to a significant
biomass of Sharks, which represented a resource that could be exploited to provide
meat to the local markets.
On the basis of Conti’s recommendations, Shark fisheries developed. For instance, six fisheries
were created on the Petite Côte in Senegal at the beginning of the 1940s, producing shark
meat and liver oil. Despite the initial high biomass levels, the Shark stocks dwindled because
of this targeted fishing. The average annual catch during that period was estimated to be
2,500 tons (Blanc, 1958).
In 1952, only one of these fisheries was still operating, using motorised pirogues and exploiting
the most remote fishing zones. All the other fisheries had disappeared, due to the fact that
the yields had plummeted in less than ten years.
Overexploitation and the need to establish management rules were already important issues
(the closing of Lévrier Bay, in Mauritania, for example, to limit the decreasing yields in meagre);
however, in general the biology of the species was not taken into account as a means for
measuring the possible levels of exploitation.
was accompanied by industrial fishing
increased capacity, which was responsible
for a significant amount of Shark bycatch.
Driven by the Ghanaians living in Gambia,
Shark exploitation became a subregional
affair. The Ghanaian fisheries in
Gambia became a regional centre in which
shark by-products were traded.
Originally numbering about sixty fishermen,
the community rapidly expanded to
develop into an organised industry, which
exported the salted and dried meat to
Ghana, where shark meat is traditionally
consumed.
Taking part in the fishing activities,
with techniques developed in the homelands,
the Ghanaians managed to become
involved in all sectors of this industry,
working on shark processing, purchasing
Géants des mers chaudes, by Anita Conti, Hoëbeke, Paris, 1993.
fresh products, and selling the salted and
dried meat to the Ghanaian market.
The Ghanaians also started buying
Sharks caught by Senegalese fishermen,
who were targeting mainly barracuda and
operating in the Saloum delta and along
the Gambian coast. The purchasing of
ray and shark carcasses from common
fisheries also developed throughout the
sub-region: Ghanaian purchasers could
be found from Mauritania to Guinea.
Some Ghanaian merchants even provided
informal loans to entice the networks of
fish wholesalers and fisheries to target
selachians.
The 1980s and 1990s correspond to a
period of development for the worldwide
shark fin market in response to
the demand from South East Asia. This
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