How Shining a Light on Ships Could Help Solve Illegal Fishing
Key takeaways
- “The resource is depleting,” said Sarr, president of the Platform of Artisanal Fishing Stakeholders in Senegal, a group that represents more than 50 fishing communities from Saint-Louis down to Cap Skirring.
- Senegal’s struggles are emblematic of a $50 billion global crisis, with illegal fishing fleets vacuuming unprotected fish stocks around the world.
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Republish. A fisherman paddles in front of commercial fishing boats off the coast of Dakar, Senegal. Credit: John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images Related America Is Policing Foreign Waters, but Gutting Domestic Protections Dolphins, Sharks, Turtles and Workers Are All Victims of Unregulated Squid Fleets Inside the Fight to Stop the Illegal Trade Driving the Vaquita Porpoise Toward Extinction Share This Article Republish Most Popular Trump’s EPA Unlawfully Cancelled Environmental Justice Grants, Judge Rules Emergency Drawdown at Flaming Gorge Hits Its Recreation Economy Trump Administration Abandons Fight Against Wind Energy as Clean Energy Output Surges Mamadou Sarr remembers when an artisanal fisherman in Dakar only had to helm his wooden pirogue a single kilometer offshore to find a rich bounty of sardines and cuttlefish. For generations, Senegal’s near shore was the staging ground for a noble trade passed down from father to son.
Today, as a result of industrial overfishing by foreign fleets and the effects of climate change, local fishermen must brave an often dangerous journey almost 100 kilometers into the Atlantic to find the same seafood their communities have depended on for generations.
“The resource is depleting,” said Sarr, president of the Platform of Artisanal Fishing Stakeholders in Senegal, a group that represents more than 50 fishing communities from Saint-Louis down to Cap Skirring. “With the scarcity, the fishermen who aren t very aware become poor.”