ENTRY DESCRIPTION
Fishing is one of the main activities in Senegal, most of their animal protein intake comes from the sea. This picture was taken in at Joal port, a major fishing center south of Senegal's capital, Dakar, women and children wait for the pirogues (fishing canoes) to unload their catch. Most of the fish caught on the day will go to foreign enterprises.
The trade, traditionally plied by women, is sold on to consumers inland. Very often they are not able to buy a single crate of fish. Some say there are times when they have no work for a whole month.
The situation has deteriorated significantly since foreign enterprises started springing up along the coast, producing meal for fish farming and stock breeding in Europe and Asia. Over the past three years, 11 plants have been built near the beaches where local fishermen land their catch, between Kayar, north of the capital, and Joal, which accounts for about a third of the country's coastline.
The atmosphere at Joal’s beach was awkward, people’s desperation could be perceived.
I met children and women fighting for fish that would fall from the baskets of those selling it to foreign companies. On that day I met hundreds of young unemployed fishermen whose hope was lost and were considering migrating by boat to Europe through the usual routes that target the Canary Islands in Spain or Italy as entry points.

AUTHOR
Amateur photographer since 2005. Started taking pictures just because my parents bought me a small camera for my birthday, I liked it and decided to learn the basic principles of photography.

I'm a Spanish born scientist/engineer and I work in the UK University since 2006. I do travel frequently to Africa as I do collaborate with a charity, this gives me the opportunity to merge with the locals and get to know their traditions and ways of living. It also makes me appreciate certain social injustice situations that I try to reflect in my photos and share with whoever wants to hear about them.

Big fan of water sports, I also document surf and Kitesurf championships.

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