Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Establishing A National Shellfish Sanitation Program In The Gambia, West Africa, Michael A. Rice, Foday Conteh, Karen Kent, Brian Crawford, Banja Bamba, Fatou Janha, Ismaila Bojang

Michael A Rice

A successful national program to assure sanitary quality of molluscan shellfish requires a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency governmental training, data collection, policy development and management effort in collaboration with members of the shellfish industry. The Tanbi Wetlands and other estuaries of Gambia support shellfisheries for oysters, Crassostrea tulipa, and the senile ark, Senelia senilis, conducted by the TRY Oyster Women’s Association. With low shellfish prices and a small local market, a Gambian National Shellfish Sanitation Program (GNSSP) was begun as a means to boost consumer confidence and allow market access to Gambia’s robust seasonal international tourism trade. Gambian officials began training …