Mar 23, 2017 9:30 AM

Gallery: Inside China’s Almost-Totally-Legal $400M Fishery in Africa

Yuyang Liu
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This Chinese ship fishes with side trawlers. Nets hang from struts extending from each side of the ship, dragging behind and catching anything and everything in its path.
Yuyang Liu
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On the local fishing boat, sailors pull in their nets.

Yuyang Liu
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A fisherman on a local boat tosses lunch to another worker. Food consists of roasted fish and baguettes.
Yuyang Liu
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A Chinese ship scouts places to drop their nets.

Yuyang Liu
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After sailors draw in the nets, they sort and clean the fish. Here a sailor cuts the fins of a guitarfish, the only part of the fish that sells.
Yuyang Liu
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A Chinese trawler ship heads back to Dakar after being at sea for a month.

Yuyang Liu
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Local fishermen cast their nets three to four times over a 12-hour day. They work in two boats, fishing from one and storing the catch in the other.
Yuyang Liu
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The captain of a Chinese industrial ship talks over a radio with a nearby vessel.

Yuyang Liu
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A local ship returns to Joal Fadiout, Senegal’s biggest fishing port, after a 12-hour day.
Yuyang Liu
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Local fishermen carry freshly caught fish to land to sell.

Yuyang Liu
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Workers waiting to transport fish from local boats to trucks.
Yuyang Liu
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A Chinese cemetery in Nouadhibou, Mauritania, established in the 1990s for workers who die far from their homeland.

Yuyang Liu
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At 1 am, a local captain finally eats his dinner. In five hours, he’ll rise for another long day of fishing.

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