World Fishing is monitoring developments in Mauritania after Colonel Ely Ould took power on August 3 in a bloodless coup.
The issue at stake is if and when the EU recognises the new government. Without that recognition, negotiations to renew the fiver-year-old EU fisheries treaty with Mauritania could be stalled and that puts a number of countries operating in her waters, particularly the Dutch and Spanish in limbo. This could have a serious knock-on effect at the EU retail level because some Dutch processors get half their raw material from Mauritania.
A statement from the UK, which holds the Presidency of the EU until end December said that it "is following recent events in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania closely and condemns any attempt to seize power by force. The Presidency calls upon all sides to ensure full respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law and to safeguard the well-being of its own citizens and foreign nationals in Mauritania. ".
Just before we went to press, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office told World Fishing on 15 September that there was no recognition yet of the new regime by the UK or the EU and the fisheries agreement would be reviewed in the light of the coup. Once the political situation becomes clearer then negotiations could continue, the spokesperson added.
Initial concern in the Netherlands, reports Peter Tesch, was that the new regime would follow a more anti-western course than the 21 year old regime of Maaouya Sid' Ahmed Ould Taya. Just after the coup World Fishing was assured by Mauritanian embassy spokespersons in London and Brussels that the new government would adhere to all existing international treaties and obligations, including its fishing treaties.
The UN and US have not recognised the new regime and deposed president Ould Taya has been given asylum in the West African state of Niger.
Netherlands and Spain
There are further complications in that the Netherlands and Spain (see in-depth report on Dutch industry), the two main EU member states fishing off Mauritania, disagree about the future management structure and issuing of licences under the EU treaty with Mauritania. In particular, the Dutch whose interests are exclusively pelagic feel aggrieved that they had to reduce their effort in order to protect Spanish interests in the octopus fishery, according to Dutch industry sources.
Reduced octopus stocks have already led to increased tension between Mauritanian artisanal fishermen and foreign ships targeting the same species. A few days before the military coup anti-Chinese riots erupted in the capital Nouakchott after a Chinese trawler collided with a fishing canoe and two Mauritanian fishermen died.
Besides the Netherlands and Spain, other EU nations fishing in Mauritanian waters are Germany, Ireland, France, Estonia and Lithuania. There is also a presence of Russian and Chinese vessels under their own bilateral treaties with Mauritania.
The export of fishery products represents 50 per cent of total Mauritanian exports. The appointment, by the new government, of Sidi Mohamed Ould Sidana as the new fisheries minister has reassured the Dutch trawler owners as they say they know him as a “pragmatic man” from his previous position as director of the Mauritanian fisheries research institute IMROP and previously as the senior civil servant in charge of industrial fishing.
While the Mauritanians may be happy for foreign trawlers to continue fishing to ensure fishing continues, if the EU refuses to negotiate then the country will not be paid millions of Euros under any agreement. Further, political pressure could mean that foreign fishing companies could come under attack or even censure for dealing with a country which is not recognised and outside the pale of the UN and democratic rule.
