Atlantic naval territory of Senegal. Chief Engineer Shi steers the ship back to the port of Dakar.

The depletion of China’s domestic fishery resources, which resulted from irresponsible fishing activities in China’s coastal water and poor fishery management, has forced Chinese fishing vessels to travel over tens of thousands miles to find fish in other fishing grounds like the one near West Africa. However, if irresponsible fishing activities are travelling together with the Chinese distant fishing industry and a good regional fisheries management body is still absent, the tragedy that happened in China’s coastal water might be duplicated to other fishing grounds wherever Chinese fishing fleets appear. 

2016年7月25日傍晚，大西洋塞内加尔海域。石轮机长所在的福远渔渔船正在返回达喀尔港口，随着越来越靠近近海，不时能看到当地小型捕鱼船的身影。塞内加尔的本土渔业分为手工业渔船和现代化渔船两种，但即使是较为先进的现代化渔船，其捕捞能力也无法与以中国为代表的外国工业渔船竞争，而使用传统捕捞方式的手工业渔船更面临着渔获大量减少、甚至渔网被工业渔船破坏的情况。