President Says No to the Plunder of Africa's Waters

This campaign reached a critical point in 2012, when, in January, 6000 artisanal fishermen signed a petition for sustainable fisheries. In February, Greenpeace's ship, the Arctic Sunrise, sailed in to West African waters to help protest the emptying of the seas by enormous factory trawlers, reports AllAfrica.

Before he was elected to office, Greenpeace Africa campaigners met with the now fourth president of Senegal, Macky Sall, to discuss the dire need to institute policies on sustainable fisheries at a governmental level.

In his first message to the nation, Mr Sall addressed the state of emergency that the fishing sector is in.

"There's an urgency to act in the fisheries sector in Senegal," he said. "I pledge to review the conditions for granting authorisations and fishing licenses to foreign ships and I will fight against pirates who plunder our waters and fisheries resources."

This commitment from Mr Sall is awesome news for the seas of West Africa, that are becoming increasingly overfished, and for the people of countries like Senegal, Mauritania and Ghana, for whom it is becoming harder to survive on ever emptying seas.