Dakar (AFP)

Senegal has just refused its waters to dozens of foreign trawlers, after a joint campaign by environmentalists and local fishermen fighting for their survival and that of the resource in the face of Asian and European overfishing.

The vital sector of Senegalese fishing, whether small-scale fishermen, the vast majority, larger professionals or women fish processors, has made common cause with environmentalists and Greenpeace since they learned in April that the government was examining the license applications of 54 foreign shipping companies.

The requests were denied, two government officials told AFP on condition of anonymity on Tuesday, without specifying the reasons.

The refusal "contributes to the livelihood of coastal communities and gives the ocean a chance to regenerate after a decade when the industrial fishing industry had threatened to deplete our fish stocks," said Dr. Ibrahima. Cisse, responsible for the oceans campaign of Greenpeace Africa, quoted in a press release from the NGO.

Arrived in recent decades with their vast nets and automated equipment, foreign factory boats attracted by the wealth of the Atlantic seabed skim the same waters as the Senegalese fleet, essentially made up of narrow traditional canoes.

Some operate with permits priced by the authorities according to the size of the boats, which pay less if they are Senegalese. Many others act underground, experts say.

The some 50,000 Senegalese fishermen have to move further away from the coast each year for increasingly lean catches.

However, fishing directly or indirectly supports around 500,000 Senegalese for a population of around 16 million, according to the UN. Fish represented around 17% of Senegalese export revenues in 2018, according to government figures.

Fishing is also a way of life in this poor country. All along the shores of West Africa, entire communities depend on the fishery resource.

They are affected by the activity of these trawlers who take more sardines, tuna and mackerel than nature produces, to satisfy the appetites of Asian and European consumers or to feed flour factories, especially Chinese ones.

- Bureaucratic opacity -

"The sea is no longer productive", laments Moustapha Senghor, fisherman in Mbour, south-east of Dakar, to whom his 10 m pirogue earns 5,000 CFA francs per day (7.6 euros), to be shared with his three employees.

More than a third of fish stocks, from Senegal to Nigeria, are overfished and half of the catch off the West African coast could be illegal, says the UN Food Organization (FAO) .

Senegalese President Macky Sall had won praise from fishermen and conservationists in 2012 by withdrawing licenses issued in troubled circumstances from dozens of boats, including nine from Russia.

The news that the government was considering new demands raised concerns that this firmness was a thing of the past. It focused on nerves shattered by the coronavirus pandemic, which severely affected business and sales. The opacity surrounding decision-making added to the nervousness.

The multinational industry has tried in vain to "profit" from Covid-19, said Dr. Cisse, for Greenpeace.

Most of the failed applicants were Chinese, local fishermen and experts had told AFP. Some of them have already been spotted fishing illegally off the coast of West Africa, reports the NGO Environmental Justice Foundation.

The Chinese embassy in Senegal had told AFP before the authorities decided to have no information on the permits. However, Chinese companies have forged partnerships with Senegalese companies that benefit both parties, they said.

Abdou Karim Sall, president of a Senegalese artisanal fishing association, welcomed the decision, but called for more transparency.

"No one knows how many (there are) boats" in Senegalese waters, he noted.

© 2020 AFP