CANDACE FEIT PHOTOGRAPHY

Overfishing Africa

Fish is the most important source of protein for many people in West Africa, and fishing provides jobs and income for countless individuals all along the West African coast. Women also play an indispensable role in cleaning, selling and processing the fish.

Competition between European trawlers and local fisherman are an increasing problem and have been contributing to the decrease in fishing stocks and leaving former fisherman with little opportunity for work and resulting in an increase of attempted illegal migration.

These images were made in Mauritania, Senegal and Guinea Bissau.

Fishermen and fish-sellers at the artisanal fishing port in Bissau. Guinea-Bissau is an impoverished former Portugese colony whose waters have been depleated by overfishing.
   
Octopus fishermen hauling in their black plastic buckets in Tiwilit (90km outside of Nouakchott), Mauritania. The black plastic buckets are baited and left out in the ocean, fishermen then go back out to pick up the octopus-filled buckets. Mauritania is a poor, mostly desert country which relies on fishing as one of its main industries.
  
Men bringing in a meager catch to be distributed and sold on Hann Plage in Dakar, Senegal.
     
  
Children playing on fishing boats in the town of Thiaroye-Sur-Mer, Senegal. Thiaroye is an impoverished fishing town on the edge of Dakar, Senegal.
   
A young boy fishes for crabs at the artisanal fishing port in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. There are 484 artisanal fisherman (including 112 Senegalese) who are licensed to do commercial fishing as well as unknown numbers of people fishing for subsistence.
   
A child throwing out trash on the beach in the town of Thiaroye-Sur-Mer, Senegal. Thiaroye is an impoverished fishing town on the edge of Dakar, Senegal.
     
  
Octopus fishermen hauling in their black plastic buckets in Tiwilit (90km outside of Nouakchott), Mauritania. The black plastic buckets are baited and left out in the ocean, fishermen then go back out to pick up the octopus-filled buckets. Mauritania is a poor, mostly desert country which relies on fishing as one of its main industries.
  
Octopus fishermen hauling in their black plastic buckets in Tiwilit (90km outside of Nouakchott), Mauritania. Mauritania is a poor, mostly desert country which relies on fishing as one of its main industries.
  
Women gathering and selling fish at the retail fish market at the artisanal fishing port in Bissau. Many women rely on income generated by processing and selling fish in order to support their families.
     
  
A rudimentary fish processing plant in the town of Thiaroye-Sur-Mer, Senegal.
   
Women collecting fish from boats at night to prepare them for skinning and smoking early the next morning, in Djirnda in the Sine Saloum Islands, Senegal.
  
Mohamed Lemine ould El Hacen, an octopus buyer, watches as fishermen weigh and calculates payment for octopus in Tiwilit, Mauritania.
     
  
Workers process fish and octopus at "Royal Peche" in Dakar, Senegal.
   
Workers boots and aprons sit unused during a slow day at at "Royal Peche" in Dakar, Senegal.