Senegal's efforts to protect underwater heritage

Senegal is preparing to ratify UNESCO's 2001 convention on the protection of underwater heritage: a heritage made up of sunken slave ships, fishing boats, transatlantic commercial vessels and warships, among others.

Some 1,000 sites of interest have been detected on the seabed.

The lack of national law on the protection of underwater objects has led to the looting of these shipwrecks by treasure hunters.

The convention offers a legal framework for member countries to protect their culturally and historically important vestiges of the past.

Click on "Play" above to hear Emmanuelle Landais' report from Dakar.