6. DESCRIPTION OF FISHERIES IN THE SHERBRO DIVISION (34.3.3)

6.1 General
6.2 Liberia
6.3 Sierra Leone

6.1 General

This chapter will be limited to the description of the Liberian and Sierra Leonean fisheries. Ivorian fishing activities in this area are described in Appendix 7.

6.2 Liberia

Two main fishing grounds are identified on the continental shelf of Liberia:

(i) Cape Mount/Sherbro area
(ii) area near the border with Ivory Coast

Species	Period of reproduction	Hydrographic season
Galeoides decadactylus	May-August September	TC, SC, TF
Pseudupeneus prayensis	June-August September	TC, SC, TF
Brachydeuterus auritus	May-June September-December	TC, SC, TF
Seyris alexandrinus	August-November	SC, TF
Pseudotolithus senegalensis	June-July October-November	TC, TF
Pagellus coupei	April-June September-December	TC, TF
Pagrus ehrenbergi	April-May August-September December	TC, SC, TF
Pteroscion peli	April-August	TC, SC, TF
Cynoglossus canariensis	March-May August-September November-December	TC, SC, TF
Dentex angolensis	April-May-June December-January	TC, TF
Dentex macropthalmus	January-February March-April	SF

SC: warm season
SF: cold season
TC: transition cold - warm
TF: transition warm - cold

Source: La reproduction des espèces exploitées dans le golfe de Guinée; Rapport du Groupe de travail ISRA-ORSTOM; Dakar, 7-12 November 1977: Domain, P. Note sur la reproduction de quelques espèces démersales du plateau continental sénégambien

The main fishing company is the Mesurado Fishing Company. The Continental Sea Foods Incorporated also operates in Liberia under special arrangement with Mesurado Fishing Company. Mesurado currently operates ten shrimpers and two trawlers. Continental Sea Foods operates about fourteen shrimpers. Pour Italian trawlers also operate from Monrovia. Other trawlers operating from Monrovia consist of two trawlers from Angola and also Soviet and Japanese vessels. It was not easy for the group to determine with certainty the fleet size operating from Monrovia, especially the foreign flag vessels. It was equally difficult to determine with certainty where the fish landed by the Angolan, Japanese, Italian and Soviet vessels came from because all the catches are lumped together. It is probable that some of these catches came from the continental shelf of Sierra Leone.

Catch data for vessels operated by Mesurado Fishing Company were presented to the Working Group. The total landings of fish fluctuated between 2 296 and 19 772 tons (Table 2).

Table 2 Annual landings of trawlers in Monrovia

Company	Landings (metric tons)
	1971	1972	1973	1974	1975	1976
Mesurado Fishing Co.	1 711	4 193	70	37	699	1 356
Continental Sea Foods	398	2 098	1 026	80	19 073	10 020
Italian vessels	169
A.C.F.	18
Total	2 296	6 291	1 096	117	19 772	11 376

Source: Bureau of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Monrovia, Liberia

6.3 Sierra Leone

There are two types of boats fishing demersal species in Sierra Leone: the canoe and the trawl sectors. According to information presented to the Working Group, there are about 6 000 canoes operating within two miles off the coast during the wet season and up to five miles during the dry season. There are eight Italian trawlers, most of which are locally based, operating on partnership basis with some Sierra Leone companies while the Soviet vessels are licensed to fish on the continental shelf of Sierra Leone. Only part of the catches of the Soviet vessels is landed in Freetown.

The main trawl fishing grounds off Sierra Leone and southern Guinea has been described by Williams (1963) (see Pig. 3). Off Sierra Leone, Williams identified Melakori grounds near the Guinea border and also the Banana Island, Sherbro, Dengar and Sulima grounds.

According to information supplied by the Sierra Leone participant, the total catch of canoes is estimated at about 40 000 tons. This is predominantly pelagic fish species. The proportion of demersal fishes in the whole canoe catch is not known.

Fig. 3 Principales zones de chalutage au large de la Sierra Leone (d'après G.J. Williams, 1963) - Major trawling grounds off Sierra Leone (after G.J. Williams, 1963)

Table 3 Landings of U.S.S.R. vessels in Freetown (Sierra Leone)

Species	Landings (metric tons)
	1975	1976	1977 January-June
Alosa sp.	550	4 110.0	4 476
Sphyraena spp.	20	43.3	12
Pseudotolithus spp.	50	880.0	133
Epinephelus spp.	12	48.0	89
Muraenidae	-	393.0	1.3
Scyris alexandrinus	210	410.0	1 032
Carangidae	13	39.0	130
Arius sp.	15	471.0	-
Sepia spp.	-	13.5	-
Pomadasys jubelini	-	-	5.0
Sparidae	32	-	31.7
Sarda sarda	-	-	190.7
Sardinella spp.	432	513.9	2 020
Gerres spp.	466	249.0	2 950
Total	1 800	7 530.4	11 070.7
Vessel days	360	1 454	2 056

Source: Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Freetown (Sierra Leone)

Species	Tonnage
Gerres sp.	470.04
Polynemus sp.	3.62
Brachydeuterus auritus	331.29
Sphyraena sp.	136.77
Lycodontis spp	59.77
Pomadasys jubelini	173.82
Arius sp.	138.49
Sepia sp.	3.97
Pseudotolithus spp.	1 233.07
Lutjanus spp.	5.50
Sardinella spp.	107.27
Trachinotus spp.	162.81
Scomber japonicus	2.92
Vomer setapinis	15.35
Decapterus punctatus	29.14
Epinephelus spp.	0.74
Pseudupeneus prayensis	28.34
Sparidae	290.85
Polydactylus sp.	46.77
Cynoclossus senegalensis	130.95
Drepane africana	268.78
Galeoides decadactylus	847.04
Loligo spp.	9.67
Scoliodon	15.69
Rhinobatos	54.92
Trichiurus lepturus	53.51
Albula vulpes	129.81
Others	53.45
Total	4 804.45

Source: Fisheries Division, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Freetown (Sierra Leone)

Soviet fleet: 7 580 metric tons
Italian vessels: 4 804 metric tons