A few weeks ago on World Oceans Day, I visited the coastal community of Kayar, a village about 60km north of Dakar and home to one of the largest fishing communities in Senegal.
My journey along the Senegalese coast brought me face to face with outstanding fishermen and women. The men sail into the sea on traditional colourful boats and come back to land, where the women take over. Women smoke, dry, braise, salt and sell the catch. The community almost entirely depends on what the ocean provides.
But for more than a decade now, dozens of fishmeal and fish oil factories have been built in West Africa to turn the main fish that Senegalese people rely on, sardinella, into fishmeal and fish oil. These are used to feed fish in aquaculture operations around the world, or employed to make cosmetics and food supplements for richer consumers abroad.
In Kayar, I learned firsthand about how fishmeal and fish oil factories in West Africa threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of people in the region, especially women who process and sell fish and are the most affected by competition with the fishmeal factories.
Long series of impacts
The development of the fishmeal and fish oil industry has been the last of a long series of impacts suffered by artisanal fishers in West Africa and beyond in the whole continent.
For decades large industrial fishing boats have arrived from all corners of the world to catch fish en masse and have brought over-exploitation, destruction and non-selective fishing methods, like trawling, to African waters.
Corruption, lack of transparency and lack of support from politicians towards local artisanal fishermen and women have brought poverty to many communities. Overfishing has added to an ocean already struggling due to enormous amounts of plastic waste, other forms of pollution and warmer waters.
Behind increasingly industrial fishing methods and larger fishing boats, and more recently the expansion of fishmeal factories, lies the same extractive logic that only sees monetary value in natural resources and completely disregards coastal communities’ relationship with the ocean.
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When I hear about deep-sea mining, I see that same logic at play: an emerging extractive industry led by a handful of companies mainly based in the Global North trying to extract value from the ocean seabed, irrespective of the consequences and the impacts on our cultures, beliefs and the wonderful yet unknown life of the deep sea.
If allowed to start, gigantic machines will be lowered to the ocean floor where they will scoop, dredge, or cut mineral deposits from deep ocean ecosystems, causing irreversible harm – in the Pacific Ocean first, and beyond later.
We must stop the same predatory logic that has brought misery to coastal communities around the world. Deep-sea mining would repeat and deepen the power imbalances we see in many other extractive industries, where profit for the few causes harm to the billions of people who rely on a healthy ocean. Deep-sea mining is neo-colonialism of our oceans – but together we can stop it.
Greedy companies
While a few greedy companies are pushing for deep-sea mining to start, people across the globe who have heard about this dangerous ploy to industrialise one of the last remaining intact ecosystems on the planet are fiercely resisting it. No African nation sponsors deep-sea mining exploration – just a handful of governments want to start this destructive activity in the global commons.
I am deeply inspired by this movement from people across the globe, and this is why next week I will be travelling to Kingston, Jamaica, to attend an International Seabed Authority meeting where world leaders are discussing the future of the deep ocean. I will be actively seeking to speak to African delegates about the importance of their countries calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining.
There are almost 30 countries around the world already calling for a moratorium on this destructive industry, but none of them are yet from Africa. We call on our governments across Africa to learn from the harm we have seen with industrial fisheries, and take this opportunity to stop deep-sea mining before it can start.
African governments can play a vital role in this crucial time at the International Seabed Authority so that we hand over a safer planet to future generations. DM