Senegal: Operation Sunu Gaal is under way

In search for fish, Senegalese fishermen mostly loose out. During the past years, huge international fishing trawlers have systematically overfished Senegalese waters. With “Operation Sunu Gaal”, Sea Shepherd and Senegalese authorities try to drive these fleets out of  national waters. Creative Commons Miquel Lleixà Mora (flickr)

In January, eufrika.org reported about one of Sea Shepherd’s latest operations. The marine conservation society launched “Operation Sunu Gaal” off the Senegalese coast in order to support the Senegalese government in its fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU). Meanwhile, the organization provided a ship including a crew to the government and started patrolling to support the Senegalese authorities in their efforts to ban illegal fishing vessels from the national territorial waters.

Senegalese Minister of Fisheries Haidar El Ali said:

Actually my passion for the defense of the ocean came progressively. I could see the ocean was so powerful, so beautiful and on the other side, I was seeing people being so greedy and so destructive. People have no scupules, no mercy for our resources. They don’t give a damn. Once they’re in our waters, it becomes a systematic looting . (translation by Sea Shepherd)

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