Fisherfolk communites around the world celebrate World Fisheries Day today highlighting the importance of sustainable management of fisheries and raising awareness about overfishing and habitat destruction.From Italy to Madgascar our pictures show how the oceans sustain our lives and illustrate how important it is to find sustainable solutions to overfishing. In Senegal we supported the establishment of a sustainable low impact fisheries policy that takes the interests of small-scale fishermen into account and prevents large-scale plunder by foreign industrial fishing trawlers.
Fishermen at work in artisanal fishing pirogues with seine nets off of the Senegalese coast, Kafountine.
©Clement Tardif/Greenpeace 2012
Soumbedioune fish market.Greenpeace is campaigning in West Africa for the establishment of a sustainable, low impact fisheries policy that takes into account the needs and interests of small-scale fishermen and the local communities that depend on healthy oceans.
©Pierre Gleizes/Greenpeace 2012
Fish in the process of being cured in a smokehouse, Kafountine port, Casamance.
©Clement Tardif/Greenpeace 2012.
Young boy leaning on a boat at sunset in the fishing village Sao Pedro, Sao Vicente, Cape Verde.
©Christian Aslund/Greenpeace
Fishermen use pole and line fishing method to catch skipjack tuna in the Maldives. Pole and line fishing is a selective and therefore more sustainable way to catch tuna as only fish of a certain size are caught, leaving juveniles to grow to spawning age and replenish the stock in the future. Small bait fish are thrown over the side of the boat to lure the tuna to the water surface. The fishermen use the acceleration of the fish as they race to get their prey, hook them and fling them onto the ship's flat deck.
©Paul Hilton/Greenpeace 2008
Artisanal fishermen line fishing for tuna in Kiribati, using a lure and dragging it behind the boat. While many of the modern tuna purse seiner use helicopter to search for tuna schools, the local fishermen are following the birds. Kiribati is considered one of the least developed and poorest countries in the world with people whose livelihoods depend on the fish. Since the arrival of foreign fishing vessels in Kiribati waters, the catches for the local fishermen have been reduced.
©Christian Aslund/Greenpeace 2014
Santo (42) and his son Salvatore (17) after one day of fishing activities. Greenpeace is campaigning for a Common Fisheries Policy reform, that would end overfishing carried out by industrial fleets and support artisanal fisheries that use selective methods and respect the environment.
©Lorenzo Moscia/Greenpeace 2013
Small scale fisherman next to his fishing boat in Hastings.
©David Sandison/Greenpeace 2012
Local woman and fisherman clean the catch on the beach at Baie Andovobazaha near Antsiranana, Madagascar.
©Jiri Rezac/Greenpeace 2013
The image above and following two: Artisanal fishermen ready their pirgoues (small wooden outrigger boats) on the beach at Baie Andovobazaha near Antsiranana, Madagascar.
©Jiri Rezac/Greenpeace 2013
Fishermen cast their net on the Congo River in the village of Isangi in the early morning. Isangi is the hub of small communities in the surrounding rainforest where logging is done by SAFBOIS. The DRCs rainforests are critical for its inhabitants, who depend upon the rainforests to provide essential food, medicine, and other non-timber products, along with energy and building materials. Expansion of logging into remaining areas of intact forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will destroy globally critical carbon reserves and impact biodiversity. Beyond environmental impacts, logging in the region exacerbates poverty and leads to social conflicts.
©Jiro Ose/Greenpeace 2007
