CRC’s BaNafaa project, which engaged women oyster harvesters in The Gambia, was the subject of a comprehensive article on “Africa Strictly Business” today. CRC Senior Coastal Manager Karen Kent, BaNafaa project manager, is quoted throughout. Great piece!
The Coastal Resources Center at the University of Rhode Island (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography, together with the National Sole Fishery Co-management Committee (NASCOM) in The Gambia, has launched a pilot project aimed at reducing post-harvest loss of sole at-sea. URI’s College for the Environment and Life Sciences fisheries center provided its expertise as well. The project is supported by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
The project’s key objective is to determine if the use of ice and ice boxes aboard fishing vessels will reduce post-harvest economic losses at sea, improve the quality of sole harvested and deliver economic benefits throughout the supply chain of this export commodity. A traceability process also is being field-tested in parallel with the project. Both efforts aim to strengthen sustainability of the sole fishery, which is seeking Marine Stewardship Council certification.
From design to implementation, the project has involved multiple stakeholders, including fishermen, buyers, processors and exporters. Kaufland, a large retailer based in Europe that donated funds to NASCOM to support the move towards sustainability, also supports the project. NASCOM is used some of those funds to provide ice boxes to sole fishermen taking part in the study.
Learning from a six-week pilot implemented at two landing sites—Brufut and Gunjur —will inform changes in productivity and potentially could reveal added benefits across the value chain. The study will end in mid-September, but the efforts toward improving the fishery for all stakeholders will continue.
CRC will provide an update on the pilot project’s findings following its conclusion in September.
Local media in The Gambia cite CRC in a report on the Oceans and Fisheries Initiative Learning Partner project of the National Sole Fisheries Co-Management Committee (NASCOM). CRC is one of the initiative’s partners, following its close work with NASCOM during the recently concluded Ba Nafaa project. CRC staff Karen Kent and Kristine Beran were in The Gambia earlier this month and are quoted in the article.
CRC’s work addressing coastal erosion and resilience in the less-developed world is featured in the latest issue of the URI Coastal Institute/Rhode Island Sea Grant magazine, “41 Degrees North.”