Talks on fisheries protocol by February, newspaper says

Negotiations between Senegal and the European Union (EU) on a new fisheries protocol may resume by February, a pro-government Senegalese newspaper, Le Soleil, reported on Thursday. The two sides failed to reach agreement last month on the protocol, which is linked to a 1980 Fisheries Agreement allowing EU vessels to fish in Senegalese waters. The new protocol would replace one signed in 1997 that ended on 31 December 2001 after being extended from its original April deadline. A further three-month extension was to have been applied if negotiations on the new protocol were not conclusive, according to the EU. No agreement could be reached at the latest negotiations, which took place in mid-December, because the Senegalese authorities were awaiting the results of a study on the impact of the Fisheries Agreement which had not yet been completed, the EU said. However, according to the EU, the Senegalese authorities set new conditions for the three-month extension. These were not accepted by the European body, which felt they should only be decided in the context of a new accord rather than the three- month extension, the EU said in a 21 December statement. Le Soleil said key areas on which the two sides failed to agree included areas to be fished and the length of time needed to replenish fish stocks. The EU said it paid Senegal 48 million euros (US $43 million) in financial compensation under the expired protocol. However, the Worldwide Fund for Nature has claimed that EU boats pose a threat to Senegal's fish stocks as they want to raise their catch by 60 percent. The BBC reported local people as saying that over-fishing by European trawlers posed a threat to the livelihoods and even the lives of local fishermen. As stocks decline, it said, local fishermen are forced further out to sea where they face another danger: illegal vessels often turn their lights off at night to avoid being seen, thereby increasing the risk of collision with the smaller Senegalese boats.