EU fishing interests have welcomed the news of a new fisheries agreement between the EU and Mauritania which was signed just a week before the expiry of the old agreement on 31 July.

Mauritanian fisherman and their boats await developments as the new EU agreements with their government is announced

However, under the new six-year agreement, EU vessels will have to pay three times as much for their licences and the quotas are reduced.

In February, negotiations over the renewal of the five-year old fisheries agreement broke down over Mauritanian demands for monetary compensation for the fish and a reduction in quotas (see World Fishing, April 2006).

The Mauritanians sought a substantial increase of the annual €84 million fee from the EU and a substantial quota reduction, in particular of octopus, one of the main target species for the large Spanish fleet in Mauritania.

In the end it was agreed that the EU would pay €86m/annum but that the overall quota would be reduced by 45%. The lions share of the 160 to 200 licences for EU vessels will go the Spanish and Dutch.

The total licenses for octopus have been reduced from 55 to 42, less than the 25 to 30% reduction advised, while there has also been a reduction for other demersal species and tuna.

There will be a total of 22 pelagic licenses and the quota is set at 440,000 tonne/annum, of which 300,000 will go to Dutch-owned vessels. The EU negotiators have opened the possibility for three refrigerated sea water (RSW) trawlers to operate in Mauritania. However, unlike the Dutch freezer trawlers, the Irish RWS trawlers need on-shore processing facilities of sufficient capacity, which are currently lacking at the main port of Nouadhibou.

The Mauritanian authorities are keen to increase the landing and processing of fish in Mauritania and the Dutch, who are understood to be keen to abandon the Canaries as a landing port, may consider investing in new plants.

To make transferring catches in Mauritanian waters attractive, the agreement offers a 15% reduction in the fees vessels have to pay if they transfer off Cap Blanc outside Nouadhibou. Those fees were increased from €2.5/gross tonne to €7.5 gt.

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