Dakar, Senegal – For the standard, small-scale fishermen of Ouakam Seaside in Senegal’s capital Dakar, inequality is only a look away.
Adama Gueye, a 58-year-old canoe captain, factors in the direction of the coast, the place imposing villas of the upper-class, together with politicians, sit tall and mighty a stone’s throw away from the place he fishes.
“We will see the inequalities with our personal eyes,” the fisherman informed Al Jazeera.
For him, the injustice is compounded by reducing fish shares within the West African nation, the place the centuries-old custom of artisanal fishing is menaced by overseas industrial boats that export the fish away from Senegal.
However hope is on the horizon and it lies in his nation’s new president: Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Newly elected this week after years of tribulations and political crises – together with a latest failed try by outgoing chief Macky Sall to delay the vote – Faye is Africa’s youngest chief at 44.
For a lot of disenfranchised Senegalese fishermen who really feel they’ve been wronged by their former leaders, he’s additionally an emblem of change.
“[Faye] is aware of how a lot a kilogram of rice prices,” mentioned Gueye, “he’s younger, he was born in poverty, he didn’t go to personal colleges overseas – he’s one in all us.”
For the previous years beneath President Sall, authorized fishing by industrial overseas trawlers from China and Europe who had signed contracts with the federal government, decimated Senegal’s fish shares, leaving artisanal fishers with empty nets.
This shortage additionally led native fish costs to soar, in response to fishermen – one thing that might considerably have an effect on individuals’s dietary consumption, as Senegalese get about 40 p.c of their animal protein from seafood, in response to 2017 figures.
In 2018, the worth of Senegal’s authorized fish exports reached greater than $490m, in response to the United Nations Meals and Agriculture Group, accounting for 10 p.c of the nation’s exports, behind solely phosphates, oil and gold.
Senegal additionally loses $272m per 12 months due to unauthorised and unlawful industrial fishing by overseas boats, in response to the Institute for Safety Research.
Overseas boats are restricted from fishing in sure areas and have strict indicators as to what kind of catch they’re allowed to fish. However typically, they flip off their satellite tv for pc transponders to keep away from being tracked and use unlawful nets.
The fishing trade contributes almost 1.8 p.c to Senegal’s GDP, offering greater than 600,000 jobs, in response to the Environmental Justice Basis – a quantity that may very well be increased as a consequence of lack of registration.
With out fish, many livelihoods that rely immediately and not directly on fishing are misplaced, and a sizeable variety of fishermen select to immigrate to different international locations or use their crusing abilities and take harmful boat journeys to Spain’s Canary Islands. In 2023, the UN refugee company had registered greater than 15,000 arrivals to Spain.
However now, the president-elect needs to vary the destiny of fishermen.
‘An settlement to steal our sources’
When Faye introduced his electoral programme initially of the month, he talked about shifting the fishing zone unique for artisanal fishermen by 20km (12.4 miles) to guard it from overseas boats.
He additionally introduced his intent to develop and implement a Nationwide Plan for the Immersion and Administration of Synthetic Reefs, an try to reconstruct marine habitats and ecosystems degraded by years of damaging industrial and artisanal fishing practices.
“We’ll apply with out concession and in all its rigour the rules on sea fishing to place an finish to the political and complacent administration of the sector,” native media quoted him as saying.
Prematurely of the vote, Faye additionally signed a constitution for sustainable fishing, alongside different candidates. Proposed by Senegal’s Nationwide Coalition for Sustainable Fishing and supported by Greenpeace throughout this month’s election marketing campaign, the constitution included a dedication to supervise inventory administration on the sub-regional degree, conduct audits on a fishing settlement with the European Union, and allocate a portion of income generated from oil and gasoline exploitation to the fishing sector.
Underneath Sall’s authorities, Senegal renewed a fishing settlement with the EU that had been current in a single type or one other since 1979 and has been renewed each 5 years. The deal provides European vessels entry to fish in Senegalese waters and exports that catch again house in change for 800,000 euros ($863,104). The EU additionally supplies Senegal with an extra 900,000 euros ($970,992) in investments in artisanal fishing and to enhance stocktaking capabilities, enhancing analysis and information gathering within the fisheries sector and issuing well being certifications for seafood merchandise.
However the deal has been controversial. Whereas most fishing agreements have a transparency clause concerning how a lot fish is exported by European vessels, the EU-Senegal deal doesn’t. Whereas the EU invests within the artisanal fishing trade and fishing governance, fishermen like Gueye have argued that if there are not any fish to catch, there isn’t a level to those investments.
Chinese language and Turkish industrial boats have additionally been closely criticised for his or her practices. As an illustration, it has not been unusual for the federal government to provide licences to boats with a historical past of unlawful actions. Chinese language and Spanish fishmeal corporations primarily based in Senegal, which flip the catch into fish feed to then be used to boost farm fish in China, have garnered criticism lately. In 2022, fishermen sued a Spanish fishmeal manufacturing unit, accusing it of polluting ingesting water.
As president, Sall targeted on creating the nation by means of investments and offers with overseas international locations. He was harshly criticised by the opposition – led by Faye and his ally Ousmane Sonko – for offers that weren’t within the curiosity of the Senegalese however of corporations and politicians who extract sources for exports with little trickling right down to different residents.
Faye believed it was one of many greatest grievances Senegalese had with the previous authorities, so he ran on a marketing campaign to revamp Senegal’s pure useful resource export offers with overseas international locations and lend an ear to artisanal fishermen, who felt that they had not been consulted earlier than these contracts had been signed by the earlier authorities.
“The EU signed an settlement with Senegal to steal our sources, that’s why individuals are going to Europe,” mentioned Gueye, referring to the 1000’s of native fishermen migrating to Europe on small boats.
“I hope Diomaye will put them of their place,” he mentioned, including that the brand new president additionally must crack down on unlawful fishing, unlawful nets and regulate how each industrial and artisanal fishermen function.
“We’ve got hope he’ll work for us.”
Serving to Senegalese fishermen
Fishermen might see the influence themselves. Moussa Gueye (not associated to Adama), a 30-year-old fisherman at Ouakam Seaside born in a household with a convention for fishing, informed Al Jazeera that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, when restrictions restricted the presence of business boats, fish had been plentiful.
Moustapha Senghor, coordinator of the native artisanal fisheries council of Mbour, a metropolis on the southern coast of Senegal, informed Al Jazeera that Sall had made efforts to deal with points with fishing however they had been “inadequate”.
“There’s a lack of transparency in fisheries governance in Senegal,” mentioned Senghor, who confused the necessity for open information sources that present the vessels working in Senegalese waters, the place they’ll fish and the place they cannot, and the way a lot fish is there.
He concurs with the opposite fishermen’s name for a revision of fishing agreements.
Fishing additionally converges with migration in Senegal. “A lot of the fishermen need to the Canary Islands to achieve Europe as a result of they’re fearful concerning the continuation of their fishing actions, particularly in view of the cohabitation with oil exploitation,” Senghor mentioned.
In 2014, important pure gasoline reserves had been found offshore close to the Senegalese metropolis of St Louis. Worldwide gamers like British Petroleum (BP), which has the very best stake within the venture, and US-based Kosmos Vitality have invested within the venture along with the Senegalese authorities. After the venture was introduced, European statesmen made official visits to courtroom former President Sall for potential export offers.
The extraction of gasoline was anticipated to carry $1.5bn in exports by 2025 if it had been to begin when it was scheduled originally of the 12 months, however there have been a number of manufacturing delays. Offshore oil exploitation for exports can also be anticipated to begin manufacturing within the following years.
In the meantime, fishermen in St Louis have complained of the impact the oil and gasoline rig has on their actions, together with the reduce off of fishing close to the rig and the influence on what is among the world’s greatest chilly water reefs.
Bassirou Diarra, a fisheries and aquaculture engineer and researcher on the Cheikh Anta Diop College in Dakar and campaigner on the Environmental Justice Basis, informed Al Jazeera there’s a must put money into scientific analysis as nicely.
A centre for oceanographic analysis would have the ability to monitor the inventory of fish and report on how a lot might be fished sustainably, whereas additionally monitoring the air pollution and influence of the rig on the biodiversity within the area. Diarra mentioned Senegal’s present fishing agreements are remnants of his nation’s colonial previous.
“Macky Sall has carried out [fishing] insurance policies that continued the system of exportation,” added Senghor. “[Faye] wants to assist the Senegalese eat and produce their very own fish and never export all of it overseas.”
Not simply financial pursuits threaten the fishermen.
Again at Ouakam Seaside, Gueye, the canoe captain, identified how the shore has been swallowed by the ocean for the previous 30 years, as a consequence of rising sea ranges. He’s hopeful Faye may even handle this key situation and defend the fishermen from the consequences of local weather change.
Because the seaside is flooded by a vibrant sundown, Gueye makes his final caveat clear. Regardless of the religion he places within the new president, latest political upheavals within the final years of Sall’s rule have made him extra cynical.
“We’ve woken up as a society,” he mentioned. “If [Faye] doesn’t do the job nicely, he gained’t final multiple time period.”