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Is aquaculture the new "DIAMOND" industry? BY DOROTHY-JEAN MCCOUBREY The Freetown commercial fishing fleet U ntil recently I knew very little about Sierra Leone, a country situated on the western coast of Africa. My senses only conjured up the pleasant tune of the popular 1983 song Sierra Leone by Coconut Rough, or the sight of Leonardo DiCaprio as the hero in the movie Blood Diamonds. However, in June I was asked to work with the Sierra Leone government on food safety and fi sheries issues. Soon after landing in Freetown, the busy capital city, I quickly came face- to-face with the harsh reality of living and working in a post- confl ict nation. Many of those I worked with had survived the effects of the civil war, which lasted from 1991 to 2005, yet what they saw and experienced will stay in their nightmares for a lifetime. Others live daily with physical effects; mutilated people are seen frequently in Freetown, as lopping off a limb was a political calling card in the struggle for power domination. Today, the country still struggles with good governance, and rural poverty means there is a rush to Freetown in the belief the streets are paved with gold. The reality is large shanty towns with no facilities and no work, only corruption and crime. Yet Sierra Leone is geographically beautiful, with soaring hills, tropical vegetation, 560km of coastal shoreline with white, sandy beaches and the estuaries of three large river networks. All this water means fi shing is a signifi cant industry, with total marine fi sh production estimated to be 83,000 tonnes, contributing to around 9.4 percent of GDP. Fish is also an important part of the local diet, supplying about 80 percent of the animal protein consumption in the country, and fi sh consumption per capita is approximately 17 kilos per year. In 1974 the Canadian government assisted Sierra Leone with the raft culture of the mangrove oyster Crassostrea tulipa, but sadly the project failed, due to lack of fi nancial support and the high cost of the inputs (mainly the 44-gallon drums used for fl otation and the polyethylene string used to suspend the oysters on rafts). Spat was collected from the wild and transferred to the rafts. Although technical problems of fouling were overcome and marketable oysters were produced, they could not compete with the wild stocks, which are easily gathered from the surrounding mangroves. Freshwater fi sh pond culture started with Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus and catfi sh Clarias gariepinus in 1977 through a joint funding programme with the Ministry of Fisheries, Catholic Relief Services, USAID and the Peace Corps. These fi sh species are most commonly cultured in earth ponds with the water usually tapped from perennial streams. Pond productivity is enhanced through the use of NPK fertiliser combinations as well as chicken manure. Rice bran and termites are the most commonly used feed types. A recent survey shows there are now about 1050 fi shponds in the country. About 80 percent of the ponds are privately owned, and the remainder belong to village communities or fi shing associations. Men play an active role in constructing and managing the fi sh ponds, while women and children carry out the daily maintenance and harvest the fi sh. The village women also smoke the harvested fi sh. Fish farming is largely done on a subsistence scale, and any surplus is sold locally in the nearest market centre. The unit cost of cultured tilapia species varies between US 17 cents and 33 cents per kilo. Aquaculture is not a signifi cant industry, but the potential is recognised for farming to make available good quality fresh fi sh that will provide affordable fi sh protein to the poor and fast-growing rural population. This will also reduce pressure on capture marine environments. For many reasons it is unlikely the Sierra Leone aquaculture industry will ever compete with New Zealand on the export market. But inland aquaculture expansion could provide job opportunities, quality food and improved health status. To most local Sierra Leoneans, a paying job and regular quality meals are more valuable than diamonds, enabling them to provide for their families and therefore help to break the current cycle of corruption and crime that affects so many. During the civil war, the buildings and signifi cant technical resources of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources were completely destroyed and the remaining qualifi ed staff struggle daily to improve the fi shing sector. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2011 ■ NZ AQUACULTURE ■ 11 Local fishermen departing