Senegal and Mauritania have reached a new Memorandum of Understanding on fisheries agreement, providing Senegalse fishermen with a 50,000 tonne quota. Work is due to begin near Saint-Louis to construct facilities and an access road on the Mauritanian side of the border.
The agreement was signed this week in Nouakchott during the 31st African Union Summit. The MoU between the two countries makes provision for a maximum of four hundred Senegalese boats to fish for a maximum of 50,000 tonnes of small pelagics annually in Mauritanian waters, while Mauritania will levy €10 per tonne to meet the cost of control and monitoring.
Senegal’s fisheries minister Haïdar el Ali said that the efforts made by Mauritania to reach this agreement are recognised, and that under Mauritanian law, catches must be landed in Mauritania – as will be the case under this protocol.
As a result, a quay and landing facilities are being prepared on the Mauritanian side of the border where catches landed by Senegalese fishing vessels will be inspected and weighed.
