Gambian Fishermen Are Losing Their Sea to some Rich Nations’ Appetite for Fish

10 days ago

In West Africa, a small country called The Gambia is now being faced with a really big problem. There's a whole term they've given to the problem. The Local fishermen are now fighting they call a sea war. Hold your horses, this is not war with guns and bombs and battle ships on the sea, but it's actually one with nets and boats. There's a conflict and the reason behind this conflict is overconsumption of fish by the world.

For so many years, people in Europe and Asia and especially China, have wanted more and more fish to eat, an obvious growing demand. The problem is that their demand has grown so much that local seas near them cannot supply enough fish. The solution is to get more from other places, so, foreign fleets travel far, even to Africa, just to fill this hunger and demand. They come with giant ships, strong nets and huge machines. These fleets can catch in one day what a local fisherman cannot catch in months. So you can imagine what kind of problem will come when you the local fisherman realizes the foreigner is taking way more from your seas in a day than you can even imagine to take in months.

In The Gambia, fishing is not only about getting food but it's also life itself, because fishing is a business.

Families depend on the sea for income and survival. Small wooden boats which they call pirogues, go out daily to catch just enough to feed households and sell in the markets. But now, when these boats go out, the water feels almost empty. The fish are either gone or greatly reduced.

Way too much fish is being taken out of the ocean, and it's being taken out too fast. This is what overconsumption does. The sea cannot recover at the same speed at which it is being emptied so now shat was once abundant is now scarce.

This has created some form of anger and conflict between locals and foreigners. Gambian fishermen accuse the foreign fleets of stealing their future. Sometimes their nets are destroyed. Sometimes the boats clash at sea. Sometimes fishermen even get injured during the conflict. The fight for fish is now becoming dangerous.

Just so you know, this is not only a Gambian story, it is a global one. One of the reasons foreign fleets are in West Africa is because rich nations consume more than their waters can provide.

They eat a bit much, want a bit much and barely slow down. Once again like in my previous blog, this is not an article to point fingers at any nation but to create awareness of the negative impact of over consuming resources.

Since it's not enough for them, they look elsewhere. The cost of this decision is pushed onto smaller nations, like The Gambia, whose people now struggle for daily survival.

The thing about overconsumption is that it's usually has a hidden effect. When we see fish in a restaurant or supermarket, we rarely think about where it came from in the first place. Behind that fish in that fancy restaurant might be a Gambian fisherman who lost his catch, a damaged net or an empty sea for another nation. The consumer at the table may never know and that's why I'm not directly blaming the consumer, but the pain is real, thousands of kilometers away.

This should be regarded as an environmental crisis. When too much fish is taken, we can have entire ecosystems collapsing. Species cannot reproduce that quickly to recover their population and the ocean ends up becoming unbalanced. It's not just people that suffer, start thinking about Other animals that depend on the same fish we take out, like dolphins and seabirds, they also suffer. Overconsumption does not just hurt people, it ruins nature itself.

The Gambia’s story is evidence of how consumer culture in one part of the world can harm another part of the world. People who already live with less are made to suffer so others can live with more. This imbalance is quite unfair if you ask me.

So what do you think can be done to solve this problem?

As of now, local communities are asking for stronger laws, limits on foreign fleets and protection of their waters since they technically own it. But even if that happens, because of consumer behavior, this business model for foreigners over consuming and going to get more from other nations just to keep up with their consumption rate will continue.

The real solution is for the world to just adapt to consuming less in any way possible. People must understand that every plate of fish, every demand for cheap seafood, has a cost. And sometimes like in this story, that cost is being paid by vulnerable communities and by the ocean itself.

This sea war did not come as a result of just demand for fish, it really exposes the reality of mankind, greed, imbalance and the dangerous hunger of consumer culture. So for me, I would say that until the world chooses to slow down and respect limits, more seas will become battlefields and more communities will suffer for that.