International | Pelagic politics

China’s deep-water fishing fleet is the world’s most rapacious

Even in a notoriously murky industry, it stands out

The vessel (a Chinese-owned, Ghanian-flagged bottom trawler) is not actually fishing here, but is engaged in an illegal trans-shipment of illegally caught fish.
|BEIJING, DAKAR, JAKARTA AND SINGAPORE

From his shack, Mamadou Sarr points to more than 100 brightly painted pirogues hauled up above the Atlantic surf on Ouakam beach in Dakar, the capital of Senegal. In normal times they would be out fishing. But the dozen boats that ventured out that day had come back with barely any fish. Mr Sarr, who heads the local fishing association, opens boxes that would once have been full of bream and grouper to reveal only flies. At the beachside market, a woman sleeps on the table upon which she would usually gut fish.

This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “An uneven contest”

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