On Saturday morning the name ‘Oleg Nayenov’ emerges from dawn’s silhouette, encouraged by a nikon zoom. Our chief mate calls the fisherman in a friendly Russian voice. There is no reply. The factory has moved erratically through the night, darting this way and that often at high speeds and only shooting its net twice in the early morning. We film the second haul – it comes up near empty.
On Sunday it’s the Lithuanian flagged Irivinga with its nets down, trailing hundreds of metres behind. I find it nerve-wracking navigating about its stern where an enormous flotation device, some three hundred metres off its stern, pushes up a wall of water as it is dragged ahead at a steady 4.5 knots. On the All Africa website I read this boat is rated to catch 250 tonnes in a single day, enough to feed 9000 Senegalese people for a whole year. We film the haul and ourselves – banners flying – as the catch rises out the sea.
On Monday, the captain of the Lazurny engages in conversation whilst waiting to discharge 820 tonnes of frozen fish and 50 tonnes of fish meal. There is no bycatch, he tells me, everything is processed. It has been a poor fishing season and he blames the rise in sea temperature. I ask him about the crew nationality and where the fish is going. Everyone on board is Russian, but he does not know what happens to the fish.
On Tuesday we come across a fishing bonanza and send the helicopter to identify them all: Blue Wave, Gloria, Soley, Stark, Volopas, Kingfisher, Kingklip, Alexander Kosarev, Mikhael Verbitsky, Thor, Coral and the Zakhar Sorokin. Twelve fish factories all trawling within a radius of 20 miles. I take that website statistic and punch figures into the calculator on the chart table. In just one day these boats surrounding us could feed 108 000 Senegalese people for a whole year.
