Foreign Trawlers Plunder Senegalese Waters, Driving Small Fishers to Migrate to Spain

A foreign fleet of industrial trawlers is exhausting fish stocks in Senegal, driving artisanal fishers to undertake a difficult, and sometimes deadly, migration to Spain.

That is the finding of a new report, from the U.K.-based Environmental Justice Foundation, based on interviews across Senegal and the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago that has become a destination for struggling fishers.

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated trawling is increasingly depleting fisheries, with much of the loss driven by foreign firms. Nearly half of Senegalese fishing vessels are now owned by foreign companies, predominantly Spanish and Chinese, and most of the industrial catch is being shipped overseas, largely to Europe and China.

Fishing is a critical sector of the Senegalese economy, supporting around 3 percent of the workforce while supplying an important source of food. But with a surge in industrial trawling, 57 percent of the fish populations being harvested in Senegal are now in a state of collapse.

“I worked as a fisherman for almost 10 years. When I first started, the sea was abundant. But over the years, things became so hard, little by little,” said Idrisa Seye, a former fisher who migrated to the Canary Islands to support his family at home. “Imagine someone leaving Senegal despite the fact that Senegal is so good, and leaving your family behind despite how dear they are to you.”

The number of migrants crossing from West Africa to the Canary Islands has risen more than a hundredfold in recent years, going from around 400 people in 2017 to more than 46,000 last year. Those interviewed for the report said the decline of fishing was a key driver. Said one Senegalese man, Memedou Racine Seck, “If I was able to gain enough money in fishing, I would never have come to Europe.”

Senegalese migrants are making the trek at great personal risk as the migration route from West Africa to the Canaries is among the most treacherous in the world. In 2023 alone, more than 3,000 people died while attempting the crossing from Senegal. In one particularly grim episode, a ship bearing 101 people was found adrift near Cape Verde — with only 38 people still alive.

“I lost my sons, nephews, and grandson in this tragedy,” said Modou Boye Seck, a Senegalese man who had family aboard the ship. He blamed the loss on the fishing crisis in Senegal. “No boats go to sea lately. And that’s the difficulties the young people are dealing with, and it caused this tragic death upon them, and that’s the most heartbreaking thing.”

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