"The largest numbers of unemployed fishers ever are trying to emigrate to Europe, using their small fishing boats and pirogues, which leads to a number of people dying on the high seas," says Moussa Demba Dembele, a Senegalese economist who coordinates the Forum for African Alternatives' research on development.
The ActionAid report is titled "Selfish Europe: How the Economic Partnership Agreements would further contribute to the decline of fish stocks and exacerbate the food crisis in Senegal".
It indicates that one in six of the working population is in the fishing industry and that fishing generates over 600,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Nevertheless, many West African countries have agreed to grant European fishing vessels access to their territorial waters in exchange for fees, as set out by Fishery Access Agreements initiated in 1979.
According to ActionAid, "the European Union can satisfy only 50 percent of its internal demand for fish from its own fish resources. The deficit has been filled for years through access" to the fishing waters of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
Especially West African coastal waters, relatively close to Europe, has been plundered in recent years.
Senegal's catch volumes have fallen from 95,000 tons to 45,000 tons between 1994 and 2005, according to an estimate of the Senegalese department of maritime fishing.
"European fishery operators present in Senegalese waters contribute significantly to the overexploitation of fishing stocks and provide little long term gains for the industry," the ActionAid report argues.
Senegalese fishers, like most of their West-African counterparts, fish from pirogues which do not allow them to go far out at sea, where large-haul trawlers operate.
As a consequence of the depletion of stocks, "from a peak of 10,707 pirogues in 1997, the fleet declined to a mere 5,615 in 2005", the report indicates.
"Many fishing companies are only operating part time due to the severe supply deficits of high value species and the average volume of fish exports has fallen by a total of 32 percent over the course of the past 15 years. This has led to companies laying off 50-60 percent of their staff," it adds.
Dembele estimates that those Senegalese fisheries which have not gone bankrupt now operate at less than 50 percent of their capacity.
This has led the Senegalese government to decline renewing its fishing agreements with the European Commission in 2006 in an attempt to limit access to its fish and protect its industry.
Similarly, this was a factor in the Senegalese government's decision not to sign the economic partnership agreement (EPA) the EU proposed, as according to ActionAid "the full economic partnership agreements proposed by the European Commission, which include services and investment provisions, are likely to lock in and worsen such practices".
But putting the proposed EPA on hold has not stemmed the problem, as many European trawlers catch more fish than they are allowed to.
"Companies which fish with a proper licence routinely exceed the quotas they are granted, as Senegal doesn't have enough resources to patrol its waters," Dembele explains.
Additionally, many industrial vessels routinely fish in areas reserved for small-scale fishing, which extends to six miles (9.65 km) off the coast.
"Fishing authorities also have problems controlling boats that move from one fishing zone to another while crossing borders," the report adds.
"Trawler owners play with different licenses and, if they can't get a license from Senegal, they have no problem obtaining one from a neighbouring country," the report quotes Dame Mboup, director of Senegal's fishing protection and surveillance agency, as saying.
Source: Inter Press Service
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