By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Fishermen of “Tokeh Wharf” have complained that foreign “trawler” (canoe) operators are in the habit of shooting at them and also destroying their fishing gears at sea.
They made the above complain in an interview with this the Groove 106FM at Tokeh village last Saturday, where they also said because of the terrible interference of the foreign trawler operators, they have not been able to realize better fish catch these days.
Tokeh village, which is situated in the Western Area Rural District, is one of the coastal communities in the Freetown peninsula whose inhabitants are predominantly fishermen and fishmongers.
Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, Abdul Turay, said as local fishermen, they have various ways of catching fish but they have been enduring lots of threats from foreign trawler operators.
He noted that sometimes, they dropped their fishing nets at sea during the night and hope to catch fish in the morning, but foreign trawlers who carry out fishing activities in the same location destroyed their nets.
He alleged that most times, foreign trawlers are seen fishing very close to the wharf thereby preventing local fishermen from plying their trade.
“Whenever we chase them at sea in order to tell them about their ugly behavior towards us, they will shoot at us. They have guns in the trawlers, they are all white men who come to invade our waters on daily basis,” Turay said. “They have our Sierra Leonean brothers with them who aid and abet this illegal activity.”
He alleged that they normally come to fishing at night and in the morning hours, they will not be seen, adding that the local fishermen are really facing terrible threats from foreign trawler operators at night but there is no way they could fight them.
According to Turay, “fishing gears are very expensive these days and most times,” adding that they purchase some of their gadgets in neighboring Guinea because they are not sold on the Sierra Leonean markets.
“We don’t have solar lights at the wharf to aid our operations at night. We are local fishermen, we don’t have the financial muscle to hire private security personnel to be helping us here at night against foreign trawler operators,” he said.
Asked if the fishermen are using the recommended fishing nets at Tokeh wharf, he said they don’t use monofilament-fishing nets that the government condemned sometime in 2010. He added that even though the recommended nets are very expensive and the government has never purchased large quantity to loan them, they still find a way to use the best method of fishing, which is the use of the government’s recommended fishing gears.
“We don’t have any cold room here to preserve our fish catch. We don’t even have a vehicle that sells ice cube to us here,” Turay said.
Quizzed on the allegations that fishermen are in the habit of spilling petrol on the fish they catch in order to preserve it, he said they have never done that at Tokeh wharf. “Petrol is a poison and if we pour it on our catch, we will endanger the lives of hundreds of people who consume the fish,” he noted.
