First five-year treaty
The first five year treaty with the EU was concluded in 1996 when the then government of ousted president Maaouiya Ould Taya sought to replace the diminishing and ageing visiting fleet of the former Soviet Union and its allies with the presence of modern EU vessels.
Under its umbrella the presence of Spanish demersal trawlers targeting octopus and prawns (nephrops) and Dutch trawlers targeting small pelagic species like sardines and sardinella, which had entered Mauritanian waters under private treaties, was regulated. In 2000 the controversial Irish super trawler Atlantic Dawn joined the latter.
In 2001 the current treaty, which runs out at the end of July, was negotiated. As doubts were raised about the sustainability of the effort on octopus a mid-term review was ordered to be carried out by the Dutch fisheries institute RIVO on behalf of the Mauritanian fisheries institute IMROP in the northern port of Nouadhibou.
However, the review’s conclusions that the effort on octopus should be reduced by at least 25% and that the effort on prawns should be stabilised, were rejected by Spanish fishermen who in fact accused the Dutch fishing interests in Mauritania of seeking to undermine the Spanish interests even though the latter were not engaged in fisheries in competition with the former.
The question was left to the renewal of the fishery treaty in 2006.
However, by then the situation in Mauritania had drastically altered with regime change and the discovery of exploitable offshore oil reserves.
Change at the top
In a bloodless military coup under Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall on 3rd August 2005 the military council for democracy and justice accused president Taya and his government of corruption. Subsequently the new government disputed amendments the old government had agreed with the Australian company Woodside Petroleum, including amendments in relation to environmental protection.
Referring to amendments in relation to the release of ballast water agreed by the old government Dr Sidina said that Woodside now appeared to apply standards that were inferior to those applied in Norway where the offshore oil industry had to live side-by-side with the fishing industry.
But a Woodside spokesman explained that there was “no environmental framework for the oil and gas industry when we arrived here,” but it decided to apply Australian standards as an accepted international standard. “Our environmental impact statement (EIS) was given full marks by independent Scan Power Risk Management as one of the best in Africa and for a new oil frontier province.”
The new government also looked at allegations of corruption in relation to the operation of foreign vessels in Mauritanian waters and told the EU that it did not wish to see the return of Atlantic Dawn after she was arrested again for infringements of the treaty shortly after the 3rd August coup and fined $250,000. The EU initially responded that it could not allow any EU vessel to be discriminated against.
But Dr Sidina explained that Atlantic Dawn had committed two serious offences. “Any sovereign country has the right to withdraw the licence of a trawler that has proven to be a repeat offender.”
The Irish connection
The Irish trawler arrived in Mauritanian waters in 2000, originally in a planned linkup with Dutch trawler owners to target small pelagic species, but to their dismay they learned that her owner, Kevin McHugh, had concluded a private deal with the then government, according to international fishing sources.
However, after she was unsuccessful in her first outings a Dutch pelagic trawl suitable for Mauritanian waters was ordered and an experienced Dutch first officer working for Dutch trawler firm Jaczon was poached. Subsequently she outperformed the Dutch trawlers.
It was even more galling for them to see that while they strictly respected the coastal zones set aside for artisanal fishermen the Irish trawler appeared to get away with it. She had the reputation that “she could not be touched,” according to the same sources. They added that her agent in Mauritania was a relative of the ousted president Taya.
A spokesman for Mr McHugh denied that Atlantic Dawn had broken the rules and claimed instead victimisation by the new government and so were other foreign trawlers.
But a spokesman for the Dutch trawlers owners, Gerard Zwijnenburg denied that any Dutch trawler had been punished and stressed he was not aware of any foreign trawler being “victimised”. The chief of the fisheries inspection service, C.F. Cheikh Ould Ahmed, vehemently denied the allegations and added that it had been Atlantic Dawn’s second offence.
The row over her return might be more symbolic than substantial in relation to questions of what the EU is prepared to offer and by how much in particular the effort on octopus should be reduced by, but it is indicative of what representatives of the Mauritanian fishing and processing industry feel about the presence of foreigners.
Financial considerations
Income from fishing, whether from the sale of licences to foreign vessels and the export of fish and fish products from Mauritania remain important to the country and the government’s budget. “The fishing industry represents 10% of Mauritania Gross Domestic Product, while more than 25% of the government’s budget is derived from the fishing industry and between 40 to 50% of foreign currency is earned from the fishing industry,” said Dr Sidina.
However, the progress of Mauritania as an oil exporting country had certainly increased the new government’s confidence in dealing with the EU, oil companies and foreign trawler owners, said Dr Ad Corten, a Dutch fisheries scientist attached to IMROP. Dr Sidina was, until the coup, the director of IMROP.
“It is clear that the new government and the business classes want to see change from the pure extraction of Mauritanian resources like oil or fish by foreign interests to see more of these resources processed in Mauritania and then exported as value added products,” said Dr Corten.
Fishing industry spokesmen based in Nouadhibou told World Fishing, before the collapse of the talks, that they expected the government not to support the domestic industry rather to allow foreign interests to catch the fish, and transport it to Las Palmas or other places for processing.
“Why should we allow such big boats like Atlantic Dawn to just take our fish in return for money for the government without investing anything in the Mauritanian fishing industry,” said Mohamed El Mamy, director of SOPAC PP, a processor of artisinal caught fish.
She should not be allowed to return, added Sid Ahmed Ould Abeid, president of the artisanal section of the Federation Nationales des Peches (FNP). His members had been picketing the ministry of fisheries in Nouakchott during the negotiations with the EU.
At the moment Mauritanian fishermen and processors like himself had to compete on the world market with foreign fishing interests offering fish caught in Mauritanian waters, like octopus and prawns, that were cheaper than offered by himself, said Ahmed Cherif who owns two processing plants in Nouadhibou.
“We have now the ridiculous situation that the EU is in fact subsidising its fishermen to compete against the fishermen of a developing nation by offering a box of octopus in the Far East one dollar cheaper than ours. Do they want them to take their canoes and sail to the Canaries or Gibraltar to enter the EU as illegal immigrants because they cannot make a living?” asked Mr Cherif.
He explained that 440 local fishing partnerships that owned between them 600 canoes or small boats crewed by three to four men, supplied his plants with octopus, 80% of which went to Japan frozen, with the balance to Spain and other EU countries as well as prawns and sole to Europe.
The artisanal method of potting for octopus should be protected as it was much more selective and sustainable than trawling as practised by the Spaniards, added Mr Cherif. It is clear that when the minister is talking about a reduction in the effort on octopus by 30% under a future treaty with the EU, he was not talking about the artisanal sector.
Dr Corten agrees, but he believes that continuing foreign involvement could still be beneficial for Mauritania in the exploitation of those stocks that had still room for expansion in effort like the small pelagics and by investing substantially in processing capacity in Mauritania. Not without reason the Mauritanians had been disappointed in seeing promises in this regard not being fulfilled.
Originally Dutch trawler owners had promised, with the assistance of the Dutch authorities, to improve Nouadhibou port so that vessels of more than 100 metres could berth and discharge catches for processing and/or export but nothing had happened, said Dr Corten. Even though the plan appeared to have been given a new lease of life in conjunction with shipping company Maersk, doubts about a new EU fishery might still scupper it.
Another project now in doubt is a proposal by Shellfish Holland, formerly Heiploeg, to dredge for cockles on offshore banks to be processed in Nouadhbou for export to Europe. IMROP was currently engaged in setting up a testing regime that should make it compatible with the EU rules for imports, said Dr Corten.
He explained that the project had
been severely attacked by Dutch environmentalists who accused Heiploeg of intending to send dredgers to Mauritania that had just been banned from the Dutch Waddenzee to protect seabirds who foraged on cockles.
“Those accusations are ridiculous and untrue. At a depth of 20 to 30 metres these dredgers will be different than those that operated on the Waddenzee and the cockles at those depths don’t constitute a source of food for any seabird, but they grow until they suffocate each other and die, unless they are harvested in a sustainable way,” said Dr Corten.
He explained that sustainability was one of the main criteria for EU fishery treaties with third countries. Its treaty with Mauritania is one of its most expensive and there is pressure on the Commission to reduce its financial interventions to keep the EU’s fleet overcapacity to fish outside the EU.
But Dr Sidina did not think the EU was overpaying. On the contrary he suggested that if the EU wanted to pay less, its vessels would be allowed to fish less, but the EU seemed to want to retain its share at the current level.
And there was the example of nearby Morocco where recently, following the expiry of the old EU fishery treaty, a limited treaty offering “a lot of money for a little fish” was agreed.
Further negotiations with the EU are scheduled for June in a last effort to meet the end of July deadline, but if no agreement can be reached one could see the return of private treaties with foreign trawler owners and/or foreign trawlers could be reflagged, said government sources.
But the Mauritanian industry appears not to be happy with this possibility. “We have former Chinese vessels reflagged as Mauritanian, but they are still mainly crewed by Chinese and I cannot regard them as really national vessels,” said Mr Cherif.
The EU is officially against its fishermen doing private business with third countries and Mr Zwijnenburg declined to speak about the possibility of reverting to the old private treaty, while he was aware of the growing presence of Chinese and Japanese interests in Mauritania.
“I am still hopeful. We worked well with the Mauritanians over the last 10 years and we have built up something positive, we’d like to keep that,” said Mr Zwijnenburg.
