It's a good day to team up with the instructor for an hour of flight training.

It's an easy task to follow the Atlantic coastline... but just past the city suburbs, that's interesting - what's going on down there?

A long line of people on the beach - what are they doing?

Back down to earth, there it is again, but it's still too far to make out what's going on.

It looks like everyone is engaging in a tug of war.  But against what?

Ah! The big, open, wood, ocean-rugged fishing boats, called pirougues in French are launched from the beach.  Spotting a close-in school of fish, the fishermen motor out on a large curve, dropping behind them a huge net.  Once they have done this, on the beach, one set of fishermen holds the big rope tied to one end of the net and a second set of fisherman receives the rope on the other end of the net, then slowly-surely together, they all haul the heavy net and any fish it traps inside to the beach.  It takes a while, but with patient application of pulling as the waves surge and recede, they can land the catch, all sorts of fresh ocean fish for the day's local markets or for export sale to other countries. TIPTOPduTOP © 2017

The fishing industry of Senegal has an annual catch of over 450,000 tons per year.  It's a huge, important industry that feeds millions of people every year and that depends on sturdy boats, strong backs and teamwork.  TIPTOPduTOP © 2017