2022-10-10

KAYAR - Over half a million tonnes of fish are turned into fishmeal and fish oil to feed animals in industrial aquaculture systems and on intensive farms and demand is growing, as is outrage in West African fishing communities.

With this grant, our collaborative team will report on growing demand for fishmeal, a nutritious animal feed made from fish, and the harm this is doing to fish supplies for the people of Senegal.

Locals in a fishing town called Cayar have blamed the local fishmeal factory, while an FAO report has predicted the fish-based feed industry will create an edible fish gap of about 150,000 tonnes every year for the rest of the decade and NGOs have called on European industries to divest from West Africa’s fishmeal and fish oil sector.

In Cayar protests by the local fishing community have finally culminated in a court case against the town’s fishmeal producer, which was built and owned by a Spanish company called Barna. In July, Barna said they had sold the company to a local owner, a company called Touba Protéine Marine.

The outcome of our project to date has been a short documentary video and an article for Sentient Media and a Dutch radio segment. To widen the impact of the story, we have been pitching the story to editors at other outlets including The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, El Pais (Planeta Futuro), Vox (Future Perfect), Unearthed (Greenpeace) and others.

© Aïda Grovestins

Team members

Richa Syal

Richa Syal is an independent journalist reporting (Dubai) on environmental crime and exploitation. 

Richa Syal

Sophie Kevany

Sophie Kevany is a freelance journalist living in Spain.

Sophie Kevany

Aida Grovestins

Aida Grovestins is a Dutch independent multimedia journalist and videographer, based in Senegal.

Aida Grovestins
Mentor

Helena Bengtsson

Helena Bengtsson is data journalism editor at Gota Media (Sweden).

Helena Bengtsson

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