Episode 2 : Destination Senegal | M6 | Va voir ailleurs

Johnny Wahl, 42, fisherman on the Ile d’Oléron. They have been fishermen in his family for generations. At the age of 16, Johnny decided to take up the profession of sailor on small boats operated by their fishermen owners. In summer he fishes mainly at night because of the tourists. He uses the ancestral technique of long-line fishing. Active in the cause of sustainable fishing, Johnny is president of the ADAMP association, which stands up for the small fishermen of the Ile d’Oléron. His greatest pride is his daughter Anaïs, whom he’s been taking fishing since she was a little girl. To spare her feelings, he just can’t stop himself from throwing back any live catch. Johnny is leaving to spend two weeks with the fishing community of Saint-Louis in Senegal. He will live the adventure thanks to Khadim, a local fisherman, who is providing him with accommodation. His host’s house is the first shock: there’s no living room, and no dining room, just one, single room that houses the ten members of the family. Johnny will be faced with a reality that he never imagined. The man, who, in France, is fighting for fishing that is eco-responsible, will discover a world where all those values have no significance whatsoever. In Saint-Louis, you fish to survive. So Johnny will learn how to fish “the old way”. He will also have to deal with a perilous fishing campaign into Mauritania: the Saint-Louis fishermen venture illegally beyond their borders for a whole night, aboard a 25-metre craft with a dozen men and no lights so as to avoid detection by the coastguards. They haul up 25 tonnes of sardines with muscle power alone. The most memorable voyage of his life. Johnny, who had only ever been outside Europe once before, will undergo a series of cultural shocks that he is unlikely to forget. Will he return from this journey that will shake his previous opinions a changed man? Will this tough guy with the soft heart be able to cope far from his family, whom he had never left before?