Poachers' Paradise: The Fight to End Illegal Fishing in West Africa | Foreign Correspondent
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- Опубликовано: 24 авг 2022
- The oceans off the coast of West Africa once teemed with fish. Millions relied on these plentiful stocks for their livelihoods.
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Now this rich resource is being plundered by foreign vessels, fishing illegally. These large trawlers can scoop up more fish in a week than the small, local boats do in a year.
Off the north coast of Senegal, locals like Yague once made a good living catching fish.
“They used to swim up to us. We were wealthy, but ever since these many industrial vessels came, the fish started to disappear”, he says.
Local fishermen, working out of small hand-crafted boats called pirogues, can’t compete.
‘It's a race against these industrial vessels. If they notice us, they head right for us to take our catch from us. They destroy our nets”, says Yague.
“They usually also ram our pirogues, so the only thing we collect at the end of the day are our destroyed pirogues.”
It’s a similar story up and down the coast - Liberia, the Ivory Coast, even as far south as Gabon.
“Hundreds of years ago, European countries came to the African continent to steal people from these shores”, says Captain Peter Hammarstedt from environmental group, Sea Shepherd.
“Now foreign fishing fleets have come to plunder fish.”
Among the biggest offenders are Chinese-owned vessels. Captain Hammarstedt says around 800 Chinese vessels operate regularly off the coast of West Africa.
Working with European broadcaster Arte, we visit the communities whose livelihoods are under threat from these foreign trawlers. And we meet the activists helping them fight back.
In Senegal, the locals are fed up with government inaction. Fisherman Mamadou Sarr, with the help of activist group Greenpeace, is organising night-time sea patrols so they can report illegal fishing to the authorities in the hope they’ll take action.
“We must be more active. If we don't do anything, there won't be any more fish in Senegal soon.”
In Liberia, the Coast Guard is working with Sea Shepherd to patrol the seas and detain ships fishing illegally.
“Those vessels knew that the Liberian coast guard didn't have the capability to go deep into the water, so they took advantage, and came to fish”, says General George, the deputy chief of staff of the Liberian Armed Forces.
“It was time to act, because our local fishermen were going to be completely out of business.”
Illegal fishing in Liberia has dropped dramatically but constant vigilance is required.
“We have to stay on top of the poaching problem. If the patrols stop, it’s very likely that the illegal fishing problem comes back.” Captain Hammarstedt
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The Chinese tried all this a few months ago around Southern Africa , they were told to move on !
They go farther now because they already wiped out the South China Sea. Soon they'll build man made Island and claim their rights around the coast of Africa.
They have already decimated the coastal waters of Somalia... Now they're doing the same thing to West Africa.. I pray they never do the same to Southern African coastlines.
Chinese fishermen try doing this in Australian waters everyday but luckily the Australia Navy puts them in their place every time and keeps them out.
Nz gets hammered by the Chinese
Now the Indonesians are doing it to
Unfortunately the Aboriginals had to deal with this type of thing.... and have lost their country now they have other people that speak on their behalf....lmao .... from this point on if I ever steal anything I'm going to be like the Vikings and Spaniards I'll just say I did not steal it I discovered it which makes it completely legal
@@caryehoy-rg3wm skill issue
The Senegalese government should invest in the country navy to protect their waters.
Good looking out. This is happening in a lot of different people's territorial waters. It is uncouth and it needs to be made certain that it is unacceptable behaviour.
Illegal fishing , confiscate the boat and seize the catch . Do not let them sail away !
And risk international incident with China while most African Countries are held hostage by debt?
@@tephucquach7460 to no fault of the people but their government sad I hope they are able to PROTECT THEIR MARINE RESERVE for the future Especially Considering places like China are already wet ocean desert due to their uncaring ways of over using everything
The poor people always suffer...
Govt need to STOP illegal poachers NOW!
Thanks for bringing light to this problem. I hope the authorities also confiscate the illegal vessels which could then be used to further protect their waters as it seems they lack these resources.
Protect the vulnerable and the future generations !
Great work SS.
with such easy access to weapons, i'm surprised that locals don't rpg or small rocket foreign vessels trespassing over their livelihood, stealing their fish
Wish they would
This is how pirates started in Somalia, illegal fishing is a problem in west and east Africa.
s/e of senegal exists one of the world's most dangerous piracy locales.
Wow. Peter sure did mature from the last time I’d seen him on tv.
Maybe do one about the illegal fishing off the Australian waters…. Long lines etc
Perhaps they should turn to piratecy.
I used to think the pirates were bad before i seen this program.
The Commons need to be protected. What was once ours has been constantly stolen from us.
Great job, congratulations.
Good look at the situation , thanks .
Criminal Chinese poachers need to be held accountable
And this is what started the somali pirates because illegal fishing vessels would come and wipe out all their fish stocks which the somalis depended on for a living. But the media and movies never magnified this aspect of why somalis were hijacking ships because after the vessels decimated their livelyhood they resorted to hijacking ships. and the somalis had nothing to make a living on. But it was always depicted as somalis just hijacking ships for the heck of it.
For is west Africans. Time to take matters into our own hands. Solution- ( armed drones)
Europe should realised they Owe us a lot...
What a great documentary short ..
The Government heck The World Should HELP these Wonderful People PROTECT their Rights to their OCEANIC AREAS WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE MORE PEOPLE to Keep MARINE RESERVES ❤️ 💙 🙏 Senegalese people of Senegal 🇸🇳 have the right to PROTECT their livelihood from over fishing an destruction
That is why I don’t blame Somalian pirates. Foreign ships fished illegally for a long time in their waters, plundering fish and drowning local fishermen who used small boats .
I love Somalia sea pirates and maybe I will travel over to Somalia and joined the pirates we Africans don't want any foreign ship in our waters.
@@Jimmy-cf3sd your governments all over africa made the choice, so is you people in africa that didn't take interest when years ago you could decline the choice of a agreement with Chinese, now you have to honor the agreement , and you can't complain if they are emptying your part of ocean , they can legally do it because the agreement yall made... apparently all you can do is blaming for the what the bad white western country and China is doing , but yall permitted all this so what u complain about ???
Foreigner fishing in Africa is not allowed because the proirty first is the African people ,I tell you UN go out to the African country shame on you United Nations
It's china wtf has it got to do with the un
Absolutely unacceptable!!! Where are our Navies?? Still, sleeping or broken down???
How warped is it, that Somalia is being plundered for its fish and when the locals band together to fend off these sea terrorists, they are labeled pirates? You reap what you sow, terrorize our seas and you create 'pirates'.
That's the way to do it, they start losing their whole catch, the words going to get out, not to go there, even at night
Well those gillnets are also not doing any justice
They don't believe in letting the fish replenish itself. I think all fishing, in all parts of the world should be off limits for at least a year, and then getting more fish and game on the waters checking them Chinese and Russian shjps
were russia or china involved in the destruction of the most plentiful fishing grounds of all time -the Grand Banks?
@@daktarioskarvannederhosen2568Soviet Union, Japan, Spain, and other countries were heavily trawling the Grand Banks in the 1960's and 1970's. Canada did not extend it's territorial waters from 12nm to 200nm until 1977. Unfortunately the cod, haddock, and halibut stocks were already devasted.
It's better way, the local fisherman call the Somali pirates to hunt the corporate fishing poachers,
Exactly
Chinese need to fish in the yangstze river
Agree let them fish their own waters but such pollution an over fishing experience they don't have clean healthy environments to use
@@dianneledford3681 and the usa didn't dump so many toxins that the Great Lakes became poisonous, right?
I believe you can't just prohibit fishing without providing another protein source.
very worrying world situation
How do you accidentally park your little timber boat across the front of a giant a fishing trawler.
Negara maju seperti Amerika dan Europe yang menghabiskan hasil laut. Sekarang menuduh negara seperti Senegal,negara miskin menghabiskan hasil laut. Memalukan, mereka menghabiskan laut menuduh Senegal.
Wait till a third of the world's oceans die.
good job sea shepherd
Now i understand Somalian pirates
Are these Japanese or Chinese boats?
Has if African Fishermen Could Enter Asia and Europe and Fish There..
No Dice..
Sea shepherd needs to be GLOBALLY PROTECT OUR OCEANS bef9re it's To Late to SAVE OUR OCEANS!! Prayers peace an love f9r all those SEA SHEPHERDS
Were we Stay with the "freedom of speach ?"
Because i live in a very healthy Democracy.
What happened to chasing Japanese whalers?
The white man robbed the African land out of it's minerals, animals & even humans now he's back to rob the oceans and this time he brought he's yellow friend with him.
Wrong completely wrong .... go study and get a culture ... you presidents in africa are not white , so is your same people putting africa in this situation for their personal benefits ... yall just need to wake up and stop blaming others .... yall just dig the hole by yourself , yall african build this corrupted system where yall are remaining poor ...
Poor man so sad
Good luck with that. People are starving, literally. 25,000 EVERY DAY.
How dare you take the King's fish, without permission!
should keep the Chinese in their own waters
These governments are so insanely stupid. How in the world can u let this happen to youre people and youre waters?!
they gave up their language, culture, refuse to invent their own laws and experiences of economics, serve their own gods, really they don't have anything of their own. No original ideas, religion, valued culture etc. Everything they value comes from europe, and so what is a little illegal fishing? they don't have the mental capacity to even be a proper people. They were made permanent and eternal inferior servants, so this will always happen to them.
Corruption. The Chinese pay off the authorities and the front line are told to turn a blind eye.
report and hope they take action🙄
I AM LIGHT AND TRUTH AND LOVE AND LIFE..
be pirates instead
Hope the Green Peace an SEA SHEPHERD is able to hp Ggabon An SENEGAL as well as the Entire COAST where the Locals Depend on the ocean for daily life maybe commandeer the vessel's and give to local groups or sale an give back to locals help patrol their own waters
African government sold the waters so what can sea shepherd do ??? Study the dynamic and get a culture , those african country Government put them self in this bad situations just for their personal benefits
Yuk I over killing fish dish Germs overseas
These African countries obviously need US military bases/Navy to manage - what could go wrong?
AFRIQUE😊😊😊
Pelt gas Bom on they boat 🛥 fight for you all right fight for your family fight for your future stand up for your right
They can fish in there friends rivers! I'm sure Russia will let them!🤣😂🏴☠️👍
🤡
Start pirating fishing vessels.
wtf..sad
I'm just here to be the 13th comment!
Surprise surprise the Chinese locust swarm greedily consuming everything in their path leaving a Barron wasteland of destruction behind them.
If this is the case then font cheat your self. There is not God
This is not a documentary... When you make a film and only expose one side of the problem without the other point of view it's not a documentary, it's called propaganda. In this "documentary" they could have asked for example the opinion of the Spanish shipowners... They would have tell you: "We are investing with a lot of resources in this area, we are building processing plants, we are giving jobs to the people, we fish here with a regulated cuota..." But when you don't even try to comprehend both sides you are just radicalizing people and cutting out the possibility to talk between sides...
It's plenty of fish in the sea I can guarantee it
What's "illegal" about it? A bunch of people don't agree with the Empire's artificial borders to feed themselves or earn a living.
Why is a Chinese ship illegally fishing from African waters? You hate the Americans so much that you’re rationalizing theft from poor countries by China. So much for caring about the poor, shows how utterly hypocritical the far left is.
Piracy is a cure