The EU subsidies which cause overfishing in West Africa’s waters also drive illegal migration

Hours before sunup every weekday, Adama and his five-man crew roll their pirogues out to sea. The fishermen set sail from Fann Hock, a bustling port on the Cap-Vert peninsula in Dakar, Senegal, on Africa’s westernmost tip, in search of sardinellas, thiof, mackerel, whatever they can find. At this point Adama knows “beggars can’t be choosers.”

“We even take the fish we used to look down on,” he said.

Fish stocks off the coast of West Africa have been dwindling over the past decade, making small catches the norm for artisanal fishermen. West African waters have historically been among the most fertile in the world, however, in recent years the fish population has shrunkowing to climate change, and overfishing and illegal fishing mostly by large foreign industrial vessels bolstered by harmful fisheries subsidies.

On Mar. 2, the World Trade Organization will press on with negotiations to curb harmful subsidies valued at more than $20 billion which enable fishing vessels to travel farther, stay longer at sea and overfish. These commercial trawlers come from developed distant-water fishing nations such as China, Russia and countries in the European Union like Spain. They catch more fish in a day than a local Senegalese fisherman like Adama can catch in a year and send their fish to feed livestock in the U.S. and Europe. Some of the harmful fisheries subsidies they enjoy include fuel subsidies and vessel construction.

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