Fifteen officers in the Gambia participate in FAO port inspection training
Fifteen officers from the Gambian Department of Fisheries and the Gambia Navy participated in a port inspection training course delivered by a team of monitoring, control and surveillance specialists of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The training was organized under the provisions of a project funded by the Federal Republic of Germany (GCP/GLO/1047/GER) and implemented by FAO, that assists the Gambia in strengthening its capacity to implement the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) and complementary international instruments to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The training was delivered between the 26 February and 6 March in Banjul and consisted of class-based teaching based on the published FAO fisheries training programme in support of the implementation of international instruments; worked examples and exercises applying numerical methods to estimating catches or cargo depending upon each specific scenario encountered; practical training on net measurement and technical measures and the verification of compliance with fish minimum size rules; roleplay exercises; field visits to undertake simulated inspections on a frozen fish carrier vessel and two demersal trawlers and a field visit to Tanji fishing centre. Trainees were fully evaluated throughout the training and the sitting of final tests.
This training contributes greatly to the strengthening of the capacity of the officers in their day-to-day work as fisheries inspectors.