Fishing in Casamance, Senegal: estuarine wealth, fisheries crisis and marine protected areas

A twofold dynamic: coastal and estuarine fishing

Fishing activity in Casamance is split between two distinct zones, worked almost exclusively on an artisanal basis by fleets of wooden pirogues.

Coastal sea fishing, practised off the river mouth from major ports such as Kafountine or Cap Skirring, targets pelagic species (sardinella, bonga shad) and demersal species (captainfish, sole, white grouper). Estuarine and inland fishing takes place in the main river channel and in the maze of bolongs, those mangrove-lined tidal channels; here the catch consists of species adapted to changing salinity — mullet, red carp — along with crustaceans and oysters.

Jola and Lebou: the human geography of fishing

The Jola, rice growers before fishermen

Artisanal subsistence fishing sets the rhythm of daily village life. Its emblematic tool is the cast net, a weighted circular net thrown by hand with a precise gesture from small pirogues driven by paddle or sail. But this practice belongs to a specific cultural reality: the Jola people, by far the majority in Lower Casamance and of animist and Christian tradition, are not originally a fishing people. Hunter-gatherers in the distant past, the Jola became above all remarkable rice growers: mastering rice cultivation in mangrove areas remains the heart of their identity. Cast-net fishing is therefore a complementary, subsistence activity woven into the farming cycle, not a maritime specialisation.

The Lebou and the major landing centres

The major fishing centres rest on an entirely different reality. Sea fishing has historically been the preserve of the Lebou, a people from the Dakar region and the northern coast, mostly Muslim — the Lebou of the Cap-Vert peninsula are known for having formed, as early as the 18th century, one of the country's first autonomous political entities. It was they who, through successive waves of settlement, developed the major landing centres along the Casamance coast.

At sites such as Diogué, Kafountine or Cap Skirring, the activity reaches an almost industrial scale while remaining artisanal in its means. Fishing campaigns can last from a single day to several months: crews follow the fish along the West African coast, and it is not unusual for a pirogue to sell part of its catch on the way out, as far as Conakry, before returning fully loaded to its home port.

A coexistence shaped by history

The meeting of these two worlds — the Jola rice growers and the fishermen from the north — was not without friction. The establishment of many fishing camps, some of them informal, and the growing pressure on resources and land were among the many factors of tension that fed the Casamance conflict from the 1980s onwards. Some of these centres were destroyed and these episodes claimed lives. Recalling this history, without ever simplifying it or reducing it to a single cause, means understanding that today's Casamance fishing landscape is also the product of a complex human geography, made of sensitive memories.

The depletion of resources

Despite this historic abundance, local stakeholders are seeing a drastic fall in yields and an alarming decrease in the size of catches. This multi-factor crisis stems from several simultaneous pressures.

The central role of women processors

While the men go out to sea, women unquestionably dominate the post-catch chain. At major landing sites such as Kafountine or Cap Skirring, they are the essential players in adding value to the fish and distributing it.

Mastery of preservation techniques

Without a developed cold chain, preserving surpluses rests entirely on women's know-how. Through smoking, drying, fermenting and salting, they produce kéthiakh (braised and dried fish) or gejj (fermented and dried fish), staple ingredients of Senegalese cuisine. This processing supplies the interior of the country, and a large share of the output feeds the West African sub-region for months on end.

Economic autonomy and vulnerability

Organised into Economic Interest Groups (GIEs), these women generate essential income that is reinvested directly in the local economy: children's education, household health, savings clubs. But they are hit hard by the scarcity of the resource: falling landings drive up purchase prices at the pirogue and squeeze their margins.

Above all, traditional smoking requires enormous quantities of wood — often from illegal mangrove cutting — and exposes women to serious respiratory illness. Moving to improved kilns (such as FTT ovens, which use less wood and pollute less) is now a major health and environmental challenge. This is where the fishing economy meets forest conservation directly.

Marine Protected Areas: the ecological response

To reverse this destructive trend, conservation strategy is turning towards spatial management: Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). In Casamance, areas such as the Abéné MPA or Kassa-Balantacounda have become the spearheads of fisheries conservation. Their success rests on a precise way of working that combines ecological science and local governance.

Spatial zoning

An MPA does not ban fishing everywhere. Its fully protected zone — the core of the area — is strictly closed to all extraction and serves as a breeding sanctuary. Around it, a buffer zone allows strictly regulated fishing (types of gear, net mesh size, biological rest periods).

The spillover effect

By turning the core zone into a sanctuary, fish are left to breed there in large numbers and grow. They eventually spill over naturally into the adjacent fishing grounds: this is the spillover effect, which raises overall yields around the MPA.

Community co-management

MPAs are managed participatively. Management committees bring together state officials, village chiefs, representatives of the fishermen and, increasingly, representatives of the women processors. Together they set the rules and sometimes carry out surveillance through village patrols.

Towards resilient fishing — and discovering it with respect

The survival of the sector now depends on its capacity to regulate itself. While Marine Protected Areas show that biodiversity and the local economy can be reconciled, these initiatives remain fragile: their durability will depend on the state's firmness against illegal industrial fishing, on supporting women processors towards sustainable practices, and on the continued buy-in of coastal communities.

These challenges are part of the wider picture of ecological protection in Casamance. For the visitor, encountering these different faces of fishing — from the cast of a net to the bustle of a landing centre, by way of a sport trolling trip — offers a unique reading of the region. We have documented several Casamance discovery itineraries that make it possible to observe these realities with the respect and guidance they demand, far from the standards of mass tourism.

🐟 The fish threatened by overfishing in Casamance, Senegal

The pressure on the fishery resources of Casamance, Senegal affects many species of fish exploited by artisanal and maritime fishing. Overfishing, the capture of fish that are too young, certain non-selective fishing practices and the degradation of coastal and estuarine habitats weaken the natural renewal of the populations. Among the species particularly exposed to fishing pressure are notably:

• The white grouper or thiof (Epinephelus aeneus), a large fish emblematic of Senegalese fishing and particularly vulnerable to overexploitation.
• The giant African threadfin or capitaine (Polydactylus quadrifilis), a large coastal predator much sought after by fishing.
• The lesser African threadfin (Galeoides decadactylus), a demersal species subject to strong exploitation pressure.
• The croakers (Pseudotolithus spp.), demersal fish important in coastal fisheries, several stocks of which have experienced overexploitation.
• The bluespotted seabream (Pagrus caeruleostictus), a fish sought after by artisanal and commercial fishing.
• The red pandora (Pagellus bellottii), a demersal species whose stock has regularly been identified as overexploited in the available assessments.
• The sea catfish (Arius spp.), fish associated with coastal and estuarine environments, also subject to significant fishing pressure.
• The sardinellas (Sardinella aurita and Sardinella maderensis), pelagic resources essential to Senegalese fisheries and particularly sensitive to the intensification of fishing effort.
• The jacks (Caranx hippos and other Caranx spp.), large predatory fish of coastal waters, whose preservation also depends on maintaining functional marine ecosystems.

Preserving these species also means protecting their habitats. The mangroves and bolongs of Casamance are essential areas for the reproduction, growth and feeding of many fish and crustaceans. Protecting the mangrove trees, the mudflats and the nursery areas, combined with more selective fishing and better protection of juveniles, is thus inseparable from the conservation of marine biodiversity and fishery resources in Casamance, Senegal.