I come from a family of fishermen, we have been fishing for generations. We catch different kinds of fish: sardine, tuna, barracuda, mackerel, bluefish, catfish, sea bass, swordfish, and cod.
Impact of foreign fleets
The foreign fleets cause us a lot of problems. They crush our canoes and cut our nets. As a result, we have to sleep with one eye open: we throw our nets into the sea and stay awake to alert boats that may hit our pirogues or cut our nets. They have been here all along but their numbers have multiplied in the last couple of years. We have been told that the Senegalese seas have no coast guards, so it’s a free ride for everyone.
The impact is that fish has now become scarce and our revenues have decreased significantly. You can go out to sea and literally return empty-handed. Some of us are in debt as we struggle to raise funds for our businesses. Our earnings are generally split between sustenance and debts. Because of the scarcity of fish, we venture into Mauritania but the Mauritanian coastguards hunt us down, confiscate our equipment, and impose fines on us.
Proposed solution
The solution is to halt the fishing contracts with foreign fleets as we simply cannot compete. Sometimes we take pictures of their poor practices of plundering but the government disregards all the evidence.
Migration
Migration is the result of the desperation of young people.
The sea still has fish, but the main problem is that we cannot share the few fish with these fleets; we are always the losers. And its not just about catching fish, it’s also about coming back alive.