Fishy Business: How Foreign Trawlers Are Devastating Senegal’s Waters

Sri City: Senegal’s coast has long been its lifeline. Fishing is the West African country’s cultural and economic backbone, providing over 600,000 jobs and more than 40 percent of the nation’s protein intake. Yet, this way of life is collapsing.The waters that were once described as having an endless supply of marine organisms are now emptying at an alarming pace, leaving Senegal’s fisherfolk unemployed, hungry, and increasingly desperate. The Senegalese have been fishing sustainably for centuries, yet these problems only arose when the government signed a treaty with the European Union in the 1970s, which would allow them to fish in Senegalese waters; with no restrictions.

Senegal’s government has signed fishing agreements with the EU, allowing industrial trawlers to operate in its waters in exchange for aid. On paper, these agreements promise “mutual benefit”, whereas in reality they have only led to an increased dependence on the EU. The EU provides hundreds of millions in aid each year, for healthcare, education, food, and other basic requirements in Senegal, and with that comes political pressure. Senegal’s leaders, constrained by economic need, continue to renew treaties that grant European fleets access to their seas. The power imbalance leaves Senegal little room to resist, even when local communities suffer.

The trawlers that arrive under these deals do not fish sustainably. They drag vast steel nets across the ocean floor, uprooting everything in their path: fish, coral, plants, and everything that lives in them. This form of bottom trawling destroys breeding grounds and destabilises the marine ecosystem. Because the nets scoop up more than they can process, up to 80 percent of the catch is discarded back into the sea, dead. This only leads to more trawling, creating unprecedented waste. Another issue comes from the warming of the ocean. It leads to a phenomenon known as Ocean Acidification, which causes corals to crumble underwater, which leads to a higher fish mortality rate as they have less to feed on. The warming of the ocean also causes fish to migrate further away from warmer coastal waters, and deeper towards the sea bed, which could also explain why many Senegalese are not able to fish for themselves.

Meanwhile, as European trawlers dominate legal agreements, illegal Chinese vessels have flooded Senegal’s waters. Backed by heavy state subsidies, hundreds of Chinese trawlers now operate off the West African coast, often without licenses, under false registrations or making use of loopholes. Many of them fish within Senegal’s prohibited coastal zones meant for artisanal fishers. They use banned gear and destructive methods, fine-mesh nets, explosives, and chemicals, that scrape the seabed and kill juvenile fish before they can reproduce. Oversight is weak, and corruption makes enforcement nearly impossible.

China’s role in West Africa’s fishing crisis extends beyond the sea. According to a 2025 policy brief by the Atlantic Council and the University of Notre Dame, Chinese firms exploit regulatory loopholes, disguise vessel ownership through local partners, and bribe officials to avoid punishment. In Senegal and neighboring countries, they have also built fishmeal factories that convert tons of small pelagic fish, a cheap, vital food source for local people, into protein used to feed farmed salmon and pigs in Europe and Asia. These factories emit toxic waste into coastal waters, polluting them and decimating nearby fish populations. 

In an attempt to make ends meet, fishermen are selling what they are able to catch to fresh-fish traders and export factories, who will pay more for a batch than the locally oriented processors, leaving the women, who process and sell the fish, high and dry. This has led to a complete shutdown of local fish processing facilities, such as drying and salting. And with no processing work left, many women are turning to the booming export industry instead. It’s an age-old development paradox: In order to feed their families and maintain some degree of financial autonomy, women are better off exporting fish products to foreign markets, even though that means shipping a vital protein source abroad when a food security crisis at home is already underway. Communities that built their identities around fishing are losing not only their livelihoods but also their sense of belonging. Many young people in Senegal are now having to rely on poultry and beef, which are often more expensive than locally sourced fish, for protein. 

Foreign fleets have taken nearly half the catch within Senegal’s Exclusive Economic Zone over the past seventy years. Local fishermen say they now return by midday with empty nets where they once worked until evening. The fish that do remain: sardinella, mackerel, scad, are vanishing or migrating northward as climate change warms the waters. Even as stocks collapse, industrial fishing continues unabated, feeding distant markets while leaving the Senegalese desperate for a solution.

Many turn to the sea again, but this time to leave. Across the beaches of Thiaroye and Saint-Louis, the wooden pirogues that once brought in fish now carry men toward Europe. They pay traffickers hundreds of dollars for a perilous 1,500-kilometer journey to the Canary Islands. Some make it. Many drown. According to the International Organization for Migration, hundreds of Senegalese have died this year attempting the crossing. For those who remain, the message is bleak: the ocean that once sustained them now drives them away.

Experts and activists have called for stronger governance, better monitoring, and the elimination of harmful subsidies. The World Trade Organization’s 2022 Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which Senegal ratified, aims to restrict funding for fleets engaged in overfishing. But implementation remains slow, and without genuine enforcement, treaties mean little. Environmental groups argue that Europe and China must take responsibility by curbing their industrial fleets, reducing subsidies, and ensuring that fishing agreements respect ecological limits and local food security.

Senegal cannot recover its seas alone. Its survival depends on breaking free from exploitative arrangements that trade sovereignty for short-term gain. Protecting marine life requires both domestic reforms and international accountability. Until this imbalance is confronted, the waves off Dakar will keep carrying away more than fish. They will carry away a people’s way of life.