Approach On The Status Of Fishery Resource At The Countries In The Gulf Of Guinea

The offshore waters of West African countries were one of the first areas exploited by China’s pelagic fisheries and are still the main production areas for China’s transoceanic pelagic fisheries,which began in 1985 in the offshore waters of countries north of the Gulf of Guinea(Guinea-Bissau,Guinea,Sierra Leone,etc.).The countries north of the Gulf of Guinea have more river forks and sufficient water,which are rich in nutrients.The warm Gulf of Guinea current in the south and the cold Canary current in the north converge here,providing good places for fish to bait,rest,migrate and spawn,and gathering a large number of fish with high economic value.China has conducted studies on the fishery resources of Guinea and other countries around 2000,but less work has been done in this area.China National Fisheries Corporation was the first company in China to go to West Africa to engage in fishing production,and has more than 30 years of experience in production and operation in the waters of Guinea,Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau.By the end of 2018,China National Fisheries Corporation had 30 fishing vessels operating in the waters of the three countries,all of which were bottom trawling operations.The harsh entry conditions,high vessel costs and declining catch trends have challenged the sustainable and stable development of China National Fisheries Corporation’s West African fisheries.It is necessary to understand and analyse the status of fishery resources and the sales price trends of major high-value catches in these three countries to provide scientific advice for enterprises to rationalise their production and improve the economic efficiency of the fisheries industry for sustainable development.During my internship,I worked as a fish quality inspector for the China National Fisheries Corporation(CNFC)West Africa SITC fleet,mainly responsible for inspecting and supervising the quality of fish processing on production fishing vessels of CNFC in Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau,as well as guiding and correcting fish processing practices on production fishing vessels.This paper makes use of the catch data reproduced by SITC’s fishing vessels in Guinea-Bissau,Guinea and Sierra Leone,collected during the period of working in the SITC West Africa fleet,to analyse the resource status of the main species caught in the offshore waters of the above three countries north of the Gulf of Guinea through statistical analysis,including the composition of the main species caught by the fleet in each country,the annual,quarterly and monthly changes in production,the catch The main findings of this paper are as follows The main conclusions obtained from this paper are as follows:(1)Expanding the scale of fishing vessels in Sierra Leone: The production of Sierra Leone fisheries has remained stable,while the production of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau fisheries is on a decreasing trend;the production of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau fisheries is4-6 times of that of Sierra Leone,but the value of production is only 1-1.5 times of that of Sierra Leone.Therefore,it is necessary to maintain a certain fishing fleet size in Sierra Leonean waters for China National Fisheries Corporation’s fisheries benefits.(2)Ensure that fishing vessels produce normally during the peak season: fishing production in Guinea,Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leonean waters is mainly in the third and fourth quarters,with September,October and November being the peak months of production.However,production is best in the second quarter and is concentrated in May and June.Therefore,the maintenance and repair of China National Fisheries Corporation’s fishing fleets in the above three countries should be scheduled in the spring and winter of each year,and sufficient fishing supplies should be prepared to ensure that fishing vessels can operate normally in May-June and September-November.(3)Optimize gear for high-value catches: The main catch species in the waters of Guinea,Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone are similar,with most of the dominant catches being demersal species,including commercial Sepia officinalis,Penaeus(Farfantepenaeus)notialis,Pseudupeneus prayeusis,Syacium micrurum,Cynoglossus senegalensis,Galeoides decadactylus,and Arius hendelotii.Of the main catches,the value of the catch is more than half of the total annual catch value,although the production of European-oriented fish only accounts for about 40% of the annual production.Therefore,the structure of trawling gear should be reformed and optimised to improve the operational performance of the gear to improve production efficiency.(4)Conservation of major fishery resources: The dominant length and weight of catches in the waters of Guinea,Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone,except for the dominant length and weight of commercial squid and small-chinned turbot,which are still the largest size,the dominant length and weight of the rest of the catches are of the next level or the second level,indicating that the resources of these major fishing objects have been declining,so it is necessary to strengthen research on eco-friendly fishing gears to ensure the sustainable use of fishery resources.ensure the sustainable use of fishery resources.(5)Strengthen market research to improve economic efficiency: In order to improve the efficiency of fisheries enterprises,not only the yield of fish catches should be considered,but also the market price of fish products,and this paper selects the dominant species of Senegalese tongue sole for study.The GAM model was constructed to analyse the relationship between different influencing factors on the price of different sizes of fish,and the price of the fish was less influenced by different factors in the sizes M and P,where the production of Senegalese sole is relatively large,and the price of the fish remained basically stable.