The New Boats is an investigative documentary that presents an eye opening look at the impact of International Industrialized fishing in West African waters and it's disastrous effect on local communities. Sulaiman Kamara a local fisherman and Woody Backie Koroma the Public Relations Officer of Sierra Leone Artisanal Fishermen Union are passionately advocating on behalf of local fishermen and are desperately trying to prevent an environmental disaster with West African fisheries on the brink.
International boats that have started using the worst methods of fishing, both breaking local and international law and destroying fish breeding grounds. These boats are mainly operated by large Chinese and Korean fishing companies. They approach the communities with with the intention of buying fish from local fishermen. After a few month of operation they they abandon the agreement and brought in their own boats to fish for them with utmost brutality.
Most of the information about what is happening in Sierra Leone is regarded as only anecdotal. Local fisherman see this with their own eyes everyday, but without pictures and hard evidence it has been hard to gain leverage with local government or foreign press. Our profesional documentary team is training local fisherman to be effective in their community surveillance efforts. We are providing cameras and strategic feedback about how to collect impactful evidence.
The potential long term impact will be to pressure local government to protect this importnat resource for the future of a healthy ocean and a stable country. This work also underscores the importance of a healthy indigenous media sector. we are putting partnerships together that will both ensure this film is seen widely aboard and that out team has the political backing of major organizations working on environmental justice and protecting the rights of journalists.
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