Key issues for the sustainable management of Senegal’s marine fisheries: The importance of climate change in the management of fisheries:

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1.1.3 Key issues for the sustainable management of Senegal’s marine fisheries:

Many of Senegal’s fisheries are probably harvested at or beyond the level of effort needed to harvest maximum sustainable yield MSY. If effort continues to increase on Senegal’s coastal fish stocks, and if the marine ecosystems on which the Senegalese fisheries depend become more degraded by destructive fishing methods, the effects of climate change and perhaps pollution, pressures on local stocks will increase up to and even beyond the open access point which may already have been reached in some instances. In effect, and in spite of serious commitment and work, the fisheries are broadly unmanaged in some cases. The Department of Marine Fisheries DPM is well aware of this management gap and has already initiated important projects to address this matter.

1.1.4 The importance of climate change in the management of fisheries:

In the international community, it is widely agreed that climate change – global warming in particular – constitutes a serious threat to fish stocks due to its effects on the growth, reproduction and migration of different species. FAO published an important document which identifies, on a broad scale, the impacts of climate change on food security. 2 This document concluded that climate change is very likely to impact fish landings and thus i revenues generated by fishing, and ii supplies of food provided by fishing. Impacts of climate change on fish landings and fish supplies may also impact the fish processing, marketing, distribution and supply sector, including processing plants, chandlers, boat building and maintenance yards, carpenters and all those occupations which are linked to fisheries. Thus the GNP of the fishery sector as a whole may be impacted by climate change. DPM is aware of this issue and USAIDCOMFISH will support DPM and its team in managing the impacts of climate change on Senegalese fisheries.

1.1.5 Possible medium term impacts of climate change on Senegalese fish landings and fishery