The European Union (EU) and the Islamic Republic of Mauritania have concluded a deal that will allow EU fishermen to fish in Mauritanian waters for four years.
The agreement on a fourth implementing protocol to the EU’s sustainable fisheries partnership agreement (SFPA) with Mauritania was reached following negotiations in Noakchott last week.
Under the protocol, the EU fleet will be allowed to fish in Mauritanian waters for shrimp, demersal fish, tuna and small pelagic fish, up to a total of 281,500 metric tons a year, under improved operational conditions.
In addition to catches paid for by the European fleet, the EU will dedicate about 59 million per year to the partnership, of which around 4m will be used to support local fishing communities in Mauritania.
“Signing the EU’s largest fisheries partnership agreement with Mauritania brings twofold benefits: To our fishermen, it means certainty and good fishing opportunities at value for money for the next four years. For the region as a whole, it contributes to stability and the sustainable management of fisheries resources,” said EU commissioner for environment, maritime affairs and fisheries, Karmenu Vella.
This new protocol confirms several decades of cooperation in the field of fisheries, a key sector for the development of Mauritania and one of the pillars of the European strategy for blue growth, the European Commission said.
‘Bittersweet’ deal for the Spanish fleet
The new deal agreed was “bittersweet” for the Spanish fishing sector, said the Spanish Fisheries Confederation (CEPESCA).
Although the shellfish fleet has recovered one of the two fishing areas that had been closed in the previous protocol, the cephalopod fleet has been excluded in the new deal, even when the Spanish shipowners had presented “a very reasonable” proposal, the fishing body said.
The new protocol incorporates some technical improvements in various fishing modes, but CEPESCA said the deal does not consider a number of “duly argued” petitions that had been made by the Spanish chiefs, particularly in the categories of shellfish capture and that of trawlers and longliners targeting demersal species.
Undercurrent News Limited