Seventy-three fishermen are still missing following a violent tropical storm off southern Senegal’s Casamance coastal province at the weekend which left 16 dead, the daily Le Soleil reported on Tuesday. The bodies of 16 fishermen were recovered on Sunday along with the wreckage of 16 canoes, while some 18 other small fishing vessels were missing, according to Senegalese navy rescuers. According to a military report, rescue operations, involving the support of a Breguet Atlantic aircraft of the French forces based at Dakar, managed to save 58 fishermen from aboard five canoes. The casualty toll is the highest recorded among local Senegalese fishermen, most of whom head out into the Atlantic Ocean without life-jackets. A campaign to get the fishermen to wear life-jackets was begun two weeks ago at the initiative of the fisheries ministry because of the high incidence of casualties.