Mauritania

The new six year fisheries treaty agreed in July with the EU offered both Mauritania and European fishermen a good deal and opportunities to develop the links further for the mutual benefit of the two parties, fisheries minister Sidi Mohamed Ould Sidina told World Fishing.

He hoped that EU fishing interests would respond positively to the new opportunities on offer, especially in relation to the development of onshore processing capacity in Mauritania, but the minister warned that the EU was not the only partner the Mauritanians were dealing with.

To illustrate the point Mr Sidina was involved in the last week of August with a high level Japanese delegation to Mauritania to upgrade diplomatic relations to full ambassadorial level and to strengthen the Japanese fishing interests in Mauritania even further.

Within the umbrella of the new EU treaty there will be changes with not only the countries with established track records like the Spanish in demersal (prawns and octopus) and the Dutch in small pelagics (sardinella, sardines and horse mackerel), but also a Greek delegation was visiting Mauritania.

It is known that the former eastern block countries and now new EU members such as Poland and the Baltic states that used to fish off Mauritania are keen to return, as well as Irish and Scottish fishermen. Also, Iceland as a non EU European country is keen to extend its interests in Mauritania.

With so many potential suitors it is no wonder that Mr Sidina is confident that the Mauritanian fishing industry is now getting into a position to develop substantially, but he remains diplomatic. Asked why after the negotiations broke down in February an agreement was reached just before the old treaty expired by the end of July, he said, “the EU became more reasonable”.

Negotiations broke down over what Mauritania asked for regarding the EU’s right to fish and what the EU offered in monetary terms. An additional issue was Mauritania’s insistence that the controversial Irish super trawler Atlantic Dawn was no longer welcome because of repeated breaches of the regulations.

In both cases it appeared that Mauritania got its way – the EU fishing effort was reduced by 45%, especially in the demersal fisheries, while the EU contribution rose from €84 million pa to €86m and Atlantic Dawn remains banned.

But the minister was at pains to stress that he was not against other Irish vessels coming to Mauritania and was not involved in a personal vendetta with her owner Kevin McHugh despite “slanderous” remarks by his finance director Niall O’Gorman in the Irish Sunday Business 19 February accusing the new government of persecuting Atlantic Dawn.

“We have an issue with the vessel, not the owner, in fact her sistership Veronica, which used to fish here, would be welcome if they so wish,” said Mr Sidnina.

He added that a return of Atlantic Dawn would be “politically unacceptable” and the fact that she was now fishing outside the 200 miles zone off Chilli proved what a controversial vessel she was.

Nevertheless Mr Sidina hoped that other Irish vessels would make their way to Mauritania. The Irish government is keen to obtain alternative opportunities for the fleet as the mackerel fishery, one of the main fisheries within the EU for the Irish, is under pressure.

The technical problem is that the Irish fish with refrigerated seawater trawlers that have to transfer their catches quicker than, for instance, the Dutch freezers and have to make adjustments for storing in tropical waters.

An additional problem was currently lack of onshore processing capacity in Mauritania. For RSW trawlers the 30 hours steaming time to Las Palmas in the Canaries would be too long and transfer to luggers off Cap Blanc in northern Mauritania, for which a 15% reduction in the licences was available, would offer an alternative in the meantime.

The EU has made €26m available to clear the shipwrecks from the main port of Nouadhibou on the Cap Blanc peninsula, which should help the development of larger processing plants in the port in the future.

It is understood that Irish RSW trawler owners are still keen to avail of the new opportunities if they can overcome these technical difficulties, although they are disappointed with the refusal of the Mauritanian authorities to allow pair trawling.

But Mr Sidina remained adamant. “Mauritania does not allow pair trawling on FAO advice. If it can be proved that it does not harm the management of stocks, we may reconsider, but so far I have not seen anything that has convinced me.”

What remains unclear is how Brussels will divide the 22 licences and the annual 440,000 tonne quota for small pelagics.

World Fishing has learned that the Dutch Pelagic Freezer Association (PFA), which represents three trawler firms that own between them 10 Dutch flagged freezers and five other freezers, flagged in the UK, Germany and France, understand that it will get 15 licences or 300, 000 tonne pa. This would not leave much room for other EU trawlers to fish, unless they decide to conclude private fishing agreements with the Mauritanian authorities ignoring the EU’s strict policy against private third party agreements.