Shell collecting in The Gambia

by Craig and Carl Ruscoe
Photographs courtesy of Gonçalo Rosa / Atoll Specimen Shells

My brother Craig and I have been collecting shells for twenty years, but really seriously for the last ten years. We have amassed a very nice, diverse collection of shells, mostly marine, with species from almost 200 different families. Having been interested in visiting West Africa for some time we booked a fortnight in The Gambia in February 2000. We attended our first annual convention of the British Shell Collectors' Club in Napier Hall on 24 April 1999. Although we were overwhelmed by the choice and quality of species for sale we could not help but notice the shortage of West African shells being offered for the more "low budget" collectors like ourselves. This year we can take great pleasure in putting that right. This article is an account of our collecting holiday in The Gambia which is designed to give a good idea of what is available to the beachcomber who visits the country. Should you be planning a trip to The Gambia yourself, my brother and I will be delighted to hear from you to give you whatever help we can from our experience.

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Craig and I flew out of Manchester on the morning of Friday 18 February filled with optimism and excitement at the prospect of doing some proper shell collecting in a province which was completely new to us. We arrived in Yundum airport in the middle of the afternoon and it was very hot. Our coach journey to the hotel was more like being on a boat on the rough sea but some things have to be endured and that is what makes the pleasure so sweet. Ironically, our hotel, the Palm Grove, was featured in March on the holiday programme Wish You Were Here and being only recently re-opened after renovation it is, as should be expected, a lovely hotel and the food and service is first class. As soon as we had unpacked we ventured down to the beach. The moment we appeared on the beach, local people just came out of the woodwork!

Fortunately my first contact was with a very decent and sincere individual called Lamin; along with his friend Bamba Sarr, he was to guide us for the fortnight. These two locals were a godsend to us. Their English was very good and they spoke several tribal languages. They were invaluable when communicating with some of the fishermen and villagers in southern Gambia, particularly immigrant Senegalese who cannot usually speak English.

We were taken straight to the sea by our guides and we had to walk for almost a mile to reach the shoreline through inter-tidal mangrove swamps. Only three species of molluscs could tolerate that intertidal mud which would seldom be washed over by the high tide. For a better variety of molluscs you have to make that bit more effort. We spent the first two days of our holiday at the Palm Grove and attended the shoreline at the low tides. Most of the material we collected here was dead and the gastropods were, more often than not, inhabited by hermit crabs. The most prized species we found was Terebra senegalensis Lamarck, 1822, thirty good specimens with beautiful axial streaking, and we are indebted to the hermit crabs for their efforts in bringing these lovely shells to us from deeper water.

Sinum concavum Lamarck, 1822

Terebra senegalensis Lamarck, 1822

The next day, Sunday, was when the serious collecting commenced. A horrendous taxi ride over 10 miles of desolate, "corrugated" roads proved to be most rewarding. Our destination was the fishing village of Sanyang. Straight away, I could see the potential in this place as I picked a beautiful Sinum shell with reddish body whorl which I later identified as Sinum concavum Lamarck, 1822. When we reached the village on the beach we took the initiative to search through all the discarded fishing catches.

This did not go down very well: many of the villagers were becoming very distressed and were probably unimpressed with the way we nonchalantly moved between their boats, as if we owned the place. Our guides had to speak with the chief and assured him that we would be returning with clothes before he would allow us to continue our collecting. The shells that could be found included those of many circumlittoral species which cannot be obtained without the help of fisherman. Thousands of shells were scattered over a large area around some thirty fishing boats, many on the surface and many more below the surface of the sand. Four beautiful species of Natica could be found here in very healthy numbers and the exquisite turrid Clavatula nifat Bruguiere, 1789 was abundant. Many larger shells of so-called edible molluscs were discarded all over this area of the beach. For example I had no idea that Cymbium were edible. When we left the village the chief had three of the local children carry all our bags to the taxi.

Clavatula nifat Bruguiere, 1789

Murex duplex Roding, 1798

We were confined to our quarters the next day, just cleaning gastropods. Tuesday arrived and as arranged we took the taxi to Sanyang. We gave the chief the clothes as promised, all Preston North End football shirts for the local boys. He distributed the shirts and the elated children assembled with us for a group photograph for the club's match day programme.

Collecting in Gunjur was not as fruitful as Sanyang but it was here where we obtained many nice bivalves from Senegalese fisherman, including a couple of excellent ribbed cockles, Cardium costatum Linnaeus, 1758, and several lovely frilled Venus clams, Circumphalus foliaceolamellosus Schroter, 1788. We arranged to return to Gunjur in one week and we began the long journey back to Palm Grove. It takes great skill to get a bag full of fragile shells back to your hotel in one piece in a taxi which is bouncing along like a kangaroo – the trick is to grasp the bag firmly in your mid-riff and absorb all the shock.

After another day of sink-blocking we visited the capital, Banjul. I work as an optical lab technician and had accumulated masses of unwanted spectacles from patients. We visited the main hospital called the Royal Victoria. We were shown around the eye clinic where I donated the much-needed specs. Banjul, with a population of only 40,000, has enormous problems, while Serrekunda, with a population of 200,000, seems to have more of a working infrastructure; I do not know why this is. The River Gambia tends to wash everything out to sea and the only shells that could be found at the mouth of the river at Banjul were Cymbium shells which had been discarded by the local fisherman. The morning's collecting was very disappointing.

In an attempt to sample as many beaches as possible, while my brother retired to our hotel room I took the bush taxi to Senegambia. The miles of unspoilt beach here along the busiest stretch of coast in the country yielded thousands of single valves of burrowing species of bivalves but whole shells were very few and far between. Our next stop was a small fishing village just up the road called Bakau. Here there were many rocks and I collected a small attractive species of Littorina but that was about it and to top it all I left my bag in the bush taxi! This is easily done when fifteen people are crammed into a tiny van.

Friday was the day of our longest trip of the holiday to the village of Kartung, which is a stone's throw away from the Senegalese border. Our taxi ride here was simply unforgettable, we never dreamt that we would be travelling through jungle. But sure enough we did. The roads were almost undriveable and I do not mind admitting I was scared as the thick bush was full of stray cows with horns a metre in length. Kartung was fairly rewarding: the local villagers offered us many smaller shells for sale including the scallop Pseudammusium hybridum Gmelin, 1791. Everyone was getting in on the act of selling us shells as soon as they knew we were collecting. However, by this time we had really wised up: we were only paying for shells which we really wanted. For example we had some fifty specimens of Clavatula nifat and we were not about to pay for more, although, with the April Convention in mind, a few shells were a welcome addition to our surplus stock. On our way back to the taxi we were lucky enough to see some vultures. I was delighted to see these creatures in the wild for the first time, I even managed to take some photos!

After another hard day's work cleaning shells in the bathroom, we made our second visit to Bakau. Climbing over hundreds of treacherous rocks was a real test of stamina which I passed with flying colours. Our destination was a small bay where we collected lovely smooth black nerites called Nerita senegalensis Gmelin, 1791; also I replaced those interesting little Littorinas which I so stupidly left in the taxi two days previous. The only other species to be found here was Siphonaria pectinata L., 1758, abundant on intertidal rocks. A short walk to find the road then turned into a round trip of 10 kilometres. Our guides, who were otherwise very reliable, took us round a so-called lagoon which turned out to be a tributary of the River Gambia's estuary: therefore we had to go back the way we came as neither of us can swim.

Siphonaria pectinata Linné, 1758

As planned, two days later we made our second visit to Gunjur. Everybody was expecting us and from the moment we hit the beach we were swarmed with villagers eager to sell us the shells they had collected – beautiful ribbed cockles, many pen shells and Circomphalus clams. I even managed to get a lovely specimen of Murex duplex Roding, 1798, for about 7 pence – yes, I drive a hard bargain indeed! Our journey back to base saw a little detour to the small village of Tanje further up to coast. Tanje proved to be most disappointing and apart from many tiny scaphopod shells we failed to collect anything worthwhile. However, it was most exciting when on the way in to the village we were assailed by a strange man covered in red feathers: fortunately, Bamba spotted him just in time and promptly locked all the doors!

Our journeys to the more remote parts of southern Gambia never went smoothly. Amongst our problems were a puncture, distributor trouble and the taxi getting completely stuck in sand, but it is a miracle to drive on these roads at all and we were most grateful for the driver's efforts.

With only three more days left in the Tropics, Tuesday was our last day of collecting as we had much cleaning and packing to do. On Wednesday it came as no surprise to get a special visit from the hotel manager, who had had bitter complaints from the maid about the state of our bathroom. After a severe grilling from the top man, he took a smiling plumber into our bathroom.

Our coach came on time to take us to the airport and the fiasco of our return began. The organisation at Yundum is somewhat lacking and our luggage was whisked away by a hyperactive little man to the wrong check-in point. With fifteen minutes to take off, I spotted the mistake, our bags were on the plane to Gatwick! Both planes were subsequently delayed as the staff frantically rectified the fault. At least our bags made it back … so all is well that ends well!

This article by Craig and Carl Ruscoe was first published in our magazine Pallidula in October 2000.
We would like to thank Gonçalo Rosa of Atoll Specimen Shells for the use of his copyright photographs.