By: Mama A. Touray
On a walk to one of the busiest fish landing sites in the country, Aramata Manneh, a mother of over five whose ultimate livelihood depends on fish mongering at Tanji, lamented the lack of control at the Tanji fish landing site, which she said is one of the reasons for fish scarcity.
Mrs. Manneh exclusively lamented to this medium that at the Tanji fishing site, people do whatever they want, which she described as one of the challenges due to the lack of principles, regulations, or laws to govern the operations and activities at the site.
“You set principles or laws that people will abide by, but in the absence of that, people do what they want to do—that’s how this place is. There are people who come from elsewhere, from their markets, and start selling here because there are no regulations or laws about here,” she added.
She opined that if there are no laws in place to control a particular area, it’s a problem, adding that anyone can come to the Tanji site and sell.
“If there were regulations or laws in place, this would not happen. Everyone would stay at their various areas. And usually, if you say this, people will say Tanji is a big fish landing site, as if other big fish landing sites are not controlled,” she said.
She continued: “If fish is available and you want to buy, you will see over a hundred people surrounding two or three baskets, which will automatically prompt the fisherman to sell at a high price. If there were regulations in place, that would not happen.”
