Environment: overfishing by industrial trawlers threatens Senegal

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N.Bertand, C.Marchand, K.Le Bouquin, P.Seck, F.Fougère – France 2

France Televisions

The first “one ocean” summit will bring together experts and NGOs in Brest (Finistère). Friday, February 11, it will bring together heads of state around Emmanuel Macron. Among the subjects of concern: intensive fishing. In Senegal, foreign trawlers are depleting fish stocks and ruining local fishermen.

With more than 700 km of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, Senegal is the second largest fish producer in West Africa. The waters here are among the richest in fish in the world. It is a commodity which, for several years, has attracted covetousness. Chinese trawlers have appeared. They dredge the seabed and destabilize an entire sector.

Every day, thousands of fishermen board their canoes. Karim Sall, a Senegalese fisherman has been fishing for more than 40 years, but in recent years he has been unable to make a living from it. When the canoes return, the fish are sold on one of the country’s largest fishing quays. Here, up to 230,000 tons of fish were dumped per day until a few years ago. Indeed, huge foreign trawlers enter Senegalese waters.


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