Coastal communities in Senegal are reeling as stocks of sardinella - the country's most consumed fish - disappear from local waters. While fishermen blame industrial trawlers, scientists say climate change is sending the small, paddle-shaped fish northwards in search of cooler habitats.
"It's not good. There's the current and no fish," he laments."The big boats make it hard, leaving us with nowhere to fish."The so-called"tropicalisation of ecosystems" - or warmer sea temperatures altering north-west African coastal waters - is driving the redistribution of sardinella and other smallThere was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later.
"While overfishing is obviously a direct human activity, the powerful environmental impacts are an indirect human activity," Vincent Rossi, an oceanographer with the French research centre CNRS, told RFI.It warned that shared stocks would become increasingly difficult to manage sustainably.