Fishermen left stranded as Senegal's most sought-after catch moves north

Coastal communities in Senegal are reeling as stocks of sardinella – the country's most consumed fish – disappear from local waters. While fishermen blame industrial trawlers, scientists say climate change is sending the small, paddle-shaped fish northwards in search of cooler habitats. Fisherman Amadou Gueye returns to Dakar's small port of Ouakam with only five octopuses after a long day spent at sea. "It's not good. There's the current and no fish," he laments. "The big boats make it hard, leaving us with nowhere to fish." Finding sardinella, a staple food and crucial economic resource in Senegal, has become a major challenge, confirms Ibrahima Ndiaye, vice-president of Ouakam's local fishermen's committee. "The pirogues now spend seven days at sea going to Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea-Conakry – whereas in the past there was daily fishing," he tells RFI. "We used to go out in the morning and come back in the evening." A study this month in the British journal Scientific ...