The New Boats

Dear GlobalGiving Community,

Thank you all so much for your continued support. The first ever environmental film summit was a platform created to showcase not only the film New Boats, but also other short environmental films produced by Lansana Mansaray/and the WeOwnTV Freetown Media Center. The event was focused on the impact goal: Empower the Fishermen Union with the community surveillance tools, skill building, and partnership to document and report illegal fishing. We brought together the Fishermans Consortium, Market Women’s Association with members of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration, Schools, environmental groups, religious and community leaders, lawmakers, journalists and media personalities, civil society to discuss current issues with International Industrial Fishing vessels and what their presence in Sierra Leonean waters mean for local communities, the lack of surveillance and accountability of these vessels and the illegal and bad methods of fishing employed by those vessels, its effects on the local communities and ways the communities can work to increase surveillance and hold vessels accountable.

We had a very lengthy Q&A after the screenings and various audience reactionscame up such as:
Folks had a positive reaction to the film and praised the work in really giving a visual account of the realities affecting the fishing sector, the politics behind it, the issues facing the fishing communities and the negative environmental factors happening in not just the Tombo communities but the other communities highlighted in the other Short films screened “Yagliboya-The Sinking Island” “Mangrove Survival” and “Paewulay is Falling”.

Many were angered by governments lack of action within the sector despite knowing the issues. There was a representative from the Ministry of Environment who highlighted that while they were aware of these issues the onus of solving many of the issues highlighted belonged to the ministry of Marine resources and fisheries. Many in the audience had a very negative reaction in learning about the Sierra Leone Yellow card ban for over 15 years and our lack of ability to overturn the ban. Folks asked many questions on how we can overturn this.

Many questioned government accountability in addressing these issues as well as the other negative government actions that exacerbate these issues such as the building of a new and unnecessary “fish processing harbor” at Black Johnson beach. Folks highlighted that community response efforts such as the surveillance of the waters by locals were met with brutality and that these fishermen were considered pirates for even trying to monitor and document the issues and address them with policy makers.

Audience members urged further lobbying and interaction with the Ministry of Marine Resources and fisheries.

With gratitude,

Barmmy