Senegal okays Chinese boats with illegal fishing record, Greenpeace

Senegal’s fisheries ministry has issued fishing licenses to vessels of a Chinese industrial fleet involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activity in recent years, according to a new investigation by the environmental group, Greenpeace.

The report, Seasick: As Covid-19 locks down West Africa, its waters remain open to plunder, is based on the activist NGO’s observations of fishing vessels and fish meal and fish oil factories in Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania between March and July.

It digs into the events surrounding the unprecedented 52 foreign vessels that applied for fishing licenses from the Senegalese government earlier this year, amid lockdown restrictions owing to the coronavirus. The applications infuriated several Senegalese fisheries stakeholders, including artisanal fishermen, industrial shipowners and civil society organizations.

Never before had so many foreign vessels applied for licenses, especially with the lockdown constraints and food insecurity….