Senegal's Fishermen Scour Exhausted Waters

December 5, 2005

Release from: Marie-Louise Gumuchian
Reuters

YOFF, Senegal - The prow of his pirogue slicing through the glistening waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Maketdiaye makes his way back to shore to sell his catch -- 10 small black tuna fish.

He has spent seven hours at sea, searching the exhausted waters off the West African coast of Senegal for fish.

"There are fewer and fewer fish every day," he said, as women and children helped push his brightly-coloured wooden boat onto the beach at Yoff, on the outskirts of the capital Dakar.

"Before, I could bring back up to 100 fish in one catch. Today the maximum is 40 and even that's rare. I have to go really far out to get that," said the fisherman, who identified himself simply as Maketdiaye.

Once abundant, the shoals off the West African coastline have been shrinking since foreign trawlers entered the waters in the 1960s.

Depleted stocks are being further strained as more local fishermen take to the seas, partly because of a lack of fishing restrictions, partly because there are few sources of alternative employment in the poor country.

There are 60,000 fishermen in Senegal, a former French colony which earns its foreign exchange mainly from tourism, peanuts and fishing.

The overall catch from Senegalese waters fell to 374,000 tonnes in 2002 from 453,000 tonnes in 1997. The quantity of commercially valuable fish has fallen by more than 80 percent since the 1950s, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

"There are too many fishermen and not enough fish," said Paul Siegel, an adviser at WWF's West African Marine Conservation office in Senegal.

"Each fisherman adds his weight, but it is difficult to put the blame on just one factor."

BLAME GAME

Blessed with more than 500 km (310 miles) of coastline, fishing is not only a key part of Senegal's economy, accounting for a third of export revenues, but also a way of life.

More than 600,000 men and women depend on fishing and related industries in a country of 11 million, where fish and rice is the main dish.

In villages like Yoff, fishing is passed on from father to son among descendants of the Lebou tribe of fishermen, who inhabited the peninsula of Dakar long before the capital moved from the northern town of Saint Louis.

Today, the swelling ranks of Senegalese fishermen use outboard motors and nets and account for 80 percent of total tonnage caught.

Nonetheless, fishermen from Yoff blame foreign trawlers, now mainly from Europe and previously from Russia and Asia, for their difficulties, accusing them of hauling in immature fish that are of no commercial value but which are important for the small-scale local fishermen.

"They come into our waters and take all the fish. Before we had loads of fish," said Ndiaye Thioum, 58.

But the small-scale, or artisanal, fishermen are not without blame. Like the trawlers, some keep smaller fry instead of throwing them back while others use dynamite instead of nets.

"The artisanal fishing sector is not regulated, anyone can go fishing without any respect," said Moustapha Thiam, deputy director of fisheries at the ministry for maritime economy.

"We have to organise this sector," he said, adding the government planned to issue permits to limit the numbers.

FISH FARMS

European trawlers fish in Senegalese waters under a four-year, 64 million-euro ($75.4 million) contract between the European Union and Senegal. The contract runs until next year.

The deal brings in a steady stream of cash to the authorities and stipulates that 3 million euros of the proceeds each year must be spent on developing sustainable fishing.

Senegal's government is hoping to develop marine fish farms or aquaculture, and although the project is still in its early stages, more resources will be focused on it in a country where the average person consumes nearly 30 kgs of fish a year.

An August summit in Nigeria concluded that more investment in fish farming was urgently needed in Africa where the growth of natural stocks cannot keep pace with the rising population.

Aquaculture, which has boomed in other regions, now provides 38 percent of fish consumption worldwide but less than two percent in sub-Saharan Africa.

"Aquaculture is a priority. If it is developed well, it will be a solution," Thiam said.

Protected marine areas, considered crucial for the protection of fish spawning grounds and stock recovery, have also been created and more are on the way.

Such plans do little to soothe the here-and-now worries of fishermen struggling back to Yoff with meagre catches.

"I want to feed my family but if there aren't any more fish what am I going to do?" Thioum said.