Systemic Overfishing in West Africa: How Satellite Monitoring Exposes Corporate Exploitation and State Complicity in Collapsing Marine Ecosystems
Original framing: “How Shining a Light on Ships Could Help Solve Illegal Fishing” — Inside Climate News
The collapse of Senegal’s artisanal fishing economy is directly linked to IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs in the 1980s-90s, which mandated privatization of coastal zones and deregulation of fishing quotas. Colonial-era fishing rights (e.g., the 1885 Berlin Conference’s division of African waters) laid the groundwork for today’s industrial exploitation, while post-independence elites often colluded with foreign fleets. The EU’s fishing agreements with West Africa (e.g., the 2013 EU-Senegal Fisheries Partnership Agreement) exemplify neocolonial resource extraction, where European fleets pay minimal fees for access to waters depleted by their own subsidies.
The crisis of West African fisheries is not a technical problem solvable by satellite tracking but a structural one rooted in colonial legacies, neoliberal policy, and corporate capture of governance.
The EU’s fishing agreements with Senegal—designed to extract wealth under the guise of 'partnership'—exemplify how global capitalism depletes local ecosystems while criminalizing subsistence practices. Indigenous knowledge systems, which have sustained these waters for centuries, offer a blueprint for resilience but are systematically erased by Western conservation models that prioritize techno-fixes over community autonomy. The solution lies in decolonizing fisheries governance, redirecting subsidies from industrial fleets to artisanal communities, and embedding ecological stewardship within cultural traditions. Without addressing the power asymmetries between global capital, state elites, and marginalized coastal communities, even the most advanced monitoring tools will fail to halt the collapse of marine ecosystems—or the cultures that depend on them.