Case 2-1 Fishermen’s own organisation against middlemen: case of Kayal (Grande-Côte )

Kayal, handline fishery, fisheries management boards, catch limits, overfishing prevention, fish price collapse

For many years, fishers have conducted fisheries management activities by their own initiative in Kayar on Senegal’s Grande-Côte. This case study analyses the reasons why fishers could implement their own initiatives.

In Kayar, located on the Grande-Côte, fishers have been organising and managing fishing by their own initiative for many years. On the Grande-Côte, where the Isobath runs parallel to the coastline, only the foreshore of Kayar has a topography where the underwater valley cuts deeply into the coastline, forming a favourable fishing zone. Many artisanal fishers from surrounding areas come here with their pirogues to fish. The Kayar Sea has a history of conflict between local and migrant fishers over its rich fisheries resources and creating an orderly fisheries management.

In Senegal, the currency (West African CFA franc [XOF]) was devalued by 50% in January 1994, causing a temporary rise in prices and putting pressure on people’s livelihoods. Simultaneously, the price of fish in Kayar dropped, causing the value of catches to fall and fishers to be unable to repair their broken engines. Kayar’s line fishers formed a Kayar Fisheries Management Committee, uniting the fishers to increase the price of fish purchased by fishmongers. This successful experience provided the context for the subsequent Kayar fisheries management committee activities.

At that time, the Kayar fisheries management committee decided of its own initiative that the hand line fishing should be (1) limited to three boxes (45 kg) per boat per day, (2) fined for landing more than three boxes, (3) prohibited from catching small fish, (4) prohibited from fishing with gillnets, and (5) allowed to fish only after 5 am. This voluntary management of fishing activities has been implemented in Kayar for many years.

Therefore, a direct factor in the creation of the fisheries management committee in Kayar was to unite and negotiate higher fish prices with the fish traders in response to low fish prices. In addition, by regulating the quantity of fish caught, it has prevented a collapse in fish prices and the overexploitation of resources.

The direct motivation for the Kayar fishers to voluntarily create a fisheries management committee was to unite and negotiate prices with fishmongers. The committee decided to impose catch limits of its own initiative, preventing fish prices from collapsing, and its activities have ultimately promoted the sustainable use of resources.

Chapter 2 Establishing and strengthening the resource management implementation system

2.1 Establishing and strengthening resource management organisations
Organisations that practice fisheries resource management can be found in various forms, including fisheries management committees established voluntarily by fishermen in Kayar, beach committees (comité de plage) established in villages in the Saloum Delta under the initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and Local Committee of the Artisanal Fisheries (CLPAs) that have recently been promoted in Senegal.

For fisheries resource co-management, it is necessary for resource users to work with administrative agencies in charge to form a responsible organisation for activities. In this case, an existing community organisation formed on the initiative of local residents can be used as a promising organisation that can take charge of resource management activities, as it was formed as a result of the existing needs.