In news articles and documents, this plant is often referred to just as “Sea Production.” In 2016, a year after this plant was opened, Ndar Info reported that the area surrounding the factory was affected by “a daily pestilential and nauseating odor” emanating from the factory’s smokestack.1 A local fisher interviewed added that liquid waste dumped by the factory was polluting the water, with fishers finding “hundreds of dead tilapia” and the local population forbidding “children from swimming in the river for fear that they will be contaminated,” according to Ndar Info.2
Interviews with residents revealed that “since Sea Production set up in their locality, the population has been affected by coughing and colds,” according to the 2017 report by Association for the Promotion and Empowerment of Maritime Artisanal Fishing Actors.3 One resident, Mr. Lô, said that, “since he settled in, colds and coughs have been frequently observed in the village, forcing the company to take charge of purchasing prescriptions.”
Another resident, Mrs. K. Fall, said that, “children who bathe in the river complain of itching and tingling and their body gives off a smell similar to septic tanks, forcing parents to forbid them from going there.” The report also mentioned that residents found dead fish in the river and launched a petition for the factory to relocate. In terms of concerns about food meant for human consumption being diverted to fishmeal export instead, a 2017 report by Association for the Promotion and Empowerment of Maritime Artisanal Fishing Actors emphasizes that when the Saint Louis market can no longer cover its needs, the Joal fishing zone is called upon to supply it with raw materials.”4
In October 2019, a group of more than 50 men and women marched to protest the factory, holding up signs that read, “Sea Production suffocates Gandiolans.” They called for a shutdown of the fishmeal factory, which they said had “made the air unbreathable in this rural area.”5 A teacher in Gandiole also said that since Sea Production began operations, “Teachers and students are affected by this bad smell and we are tired,” according to a November 2019 Dakaractu article.6 A resident who lived near this plant told Greenpeace researchers in 2021 that since Sea Production was opened, “all the people suffering from respiratory diseases live with difficulty in the village, the health of pregnant women is also affected.”7
In 2021, Sea Production was engaged in money laundering on behalf of boss Caigen Chen when the company was transferred to China, according to a Seneweb article.8 The National Financial Information Processing Unit had been alerted to large payments followed by withdrawals from a bank account in the name of the company’s administrative manager, the article stated. A judicial investigation was opened, but Sea Production denied the charges.9
Saint Louis Sea Production did not reply to a request for comment.10