APA – Dakar (Senegal) – According to the new Senegalese authorities, the publication of the list of vessels authorised to fish in Senegal’s waters is in line with the principle of transparency in the management of natural resources.
In Senegal, the new authorities intend to make transparency a cardinal feature in the way they manage public affairs. Having launched an audit of the management of the previous regime, they have just published the list of vessels authorised to fish in waters under Senegalese jurisdiction. Dr. Fatou Diouf, Minister of Fisheries, Maritime Infrastructures and Ports, announced on Monday 6th May that a total of 151 vessels, including 132 national and 19 foreign vessels, have fishing licences.
In recent years, many Senegalese fishermen have complained that they can no longer make a living because of the invasion of foreign trawlers. The latter have more sophisticated means at their disposal, making fish scarce and expensive on the local market, a situation denounced by Senegalese fishermen and consumers.
Some have even gone so far as to link the increase in irregular emigration to the crisis in the small-scale fishing sector. Some fishermen have turned themselves into migrant couriers, using their pirogues not to catch fish but to take young people to the Spanish coast for large sums of money.
On Tuesday, some daily newspapers reported the reaction of civil society organisations to this government measure.
“We have been asking [the authorities] to publish this list for two years. Finally it’s here. It gives stakeholders in the fight against illegal fishing a basis for monitoring,” Bassirou Diarra, Oceans Advocacy Officer at the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), told Le Quotidien.
“Without this list, we don’t know who is where. The list gives us the name of the boat, the name of the owner, the TGB (gross registered tonnage), i.e. the capacity of the boat, the fishing zone, the fishing option, the size of the net used, the start and end of the licence, among other things. So the inspector has all the information he needs to do his job,” he says.
For its part, Le Monde smells a “whiff of nominees” in the allocation of fishing licences by Macky Sall’s regime (2012-2024).
“Of the 151 fishing boats listed by the Ministry of Fisheries, 132 are Senegalese and the other 19 are foreign, French and Spanish. Strangely, no Chinese or Russian boats have been listed by the Fisheries Ministry,” the newspaper noted.
On the other hand, the minister points out that the list she has just published “does not take into account the files that are currently being renewed”.
“This act is in line with the principle of transparency in the management of natural resources, which constitute a national heritage”, stressed Mrs. Diouf, two weeks after receiving the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.
On 22nd April the former Belgian Prime Minister and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye discussed the renewal of the fisheries agreements between the European Union (EU) and Senegal, which are due to expire. He said he was ready to discuss the issue “without taboos”, despite the fact that some experts believe that Senegal is receiving crumbs from this partnership.
“For example, in the area of fisheries and fisheries resources, we are ready to look at the facts and see how we can make improvements on both sides,” said Charles Michel, before adding that the EU’s responsibility was to be a “loyal, predictable partner for Senegal, with no hidden agendas”.
ODL/ac/lb/as/APA