Suomen Kuvalehti magazine 23.3.2012 | Photography and text: Kukka Ranta
Photo-story about fishermen in Senegal and how industrial overfishing by EU, China and Russia is destroying the livelihood and food security of one of the world’s poorest people.
Fishing has been one of the most important livelihoods in West Africa during centuries.
Because of foreign illegal and overfishing local fish stocks started to decline rapidly in Senegal around 2000.
Most common foreign trawlers are Spanish or Chinese.
Fish is an important source of animal protein in poor countries with rapid population growth.
Boys start to work with their fathers around 12 years old.
During weekends the local fishermen gather at their ancestral home shore to fish with poor results.
Almost daily there are men fixing their nets instead of going to fishing.
Foreign
trawlers
often
damage
the
nets
of
local
fishermen.
The shores started to fill with empty useless fishing boats that the local fishermen couldn’t afford to use anymore.
The few pirogues going to the sea are filled with unemployed neighbors and friends helping each others.
Bassir Kadam he haven’t eaten breakfast for over 12 years because there are no incomes from the empty sea.
Fewer and fewer families could afford to put their children in school or cover medical expenses because of declined incomes.
Each fisherman has a large family to feed.
But less and less fish is being shared between more and more people.
Tuna fished in Senegalese territorial waters by French and Spanish trawlers is being transported from the industrial port of Dakar to Spain for processing.
The
country
of
origin
is
labeled
as
the
country
where
the
fish
product
is
processed,
not
where
it
is
caught.
The best quality of fish goes to EU and Asian markets.
The best quality of fish goes to EU and Asian markets.
Many local fish processing factories have had to close down in Senegal, because there isn’t enough fish.
If
there
is
no
fish
for
the
factory
to buy,
everyone
loses. the
fishermen
make
no
money.
The
truck and horse carriage
drivers
hang
around
idly.
Fishing
employs
600,000 or
one
million Senegalese
people
when all
segments
of
the
industry are
taken
into
account.
Most
fishmongers
at
local
markets
are
women.
Women make less incomes with smaller and fewer fish on the local market.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is the major threat to marine ecosystems and threatens food security and livelihood for millions. West Africa is estimated to have the highest levels of IUU fishing in the world.
At the same time with the collapse of the local fish stocks in 2005 about 5,000 and in 2006 over 31,000 West Africans fled poverty in their wooden boats to the Canaries with a hope of better future in Europe.
Most of these migrants were from Senegal or Mauritania, the EU ’s two biggest fisheries agreement partners.
Many West African street vendors in Barcelona originally arrived in Spain abroad
in a former fishing boat via the Canary Islands.
Ali has not seen his wife and two children since he left Senegal in
2006. His daughter was born the year he left. Ali has slept in car parks and on park benches, and has been doing the “dirty work” what is typically done by migrants.
KUKKA RANTA 
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