Mauritania renewed for one year, this Wednesday, June 5, the annual fishing licenses granted to Senegal within the framework of the protocol of application of the ‘Convention on fishing and aquaculture’ signed between the two countries in February 2001 .
“500 fishing licenses” were renewed on this occasion, and follow a two-day visit to Mauritania by the Senegalese Minister of Fisheries, Maritime and Port Infrastructure, Fatou Diouf.
Under this protocol, fishermen from Saint-Louis, a Senegalese town located on the maritime border with Mauritania, can catch annually, in Mauritanian waters, 50,000 tonnes of pelagic fish with the exception of mullet and croaker, for a tax of 17 euros per tonne.
Mauritania also promised the examination, during the next meeting between the two parties, of Senegal’s requests to see the number of licenses granted by Mauritania increase “from 500 to 1,000 and the quantity of authorized catches increase from 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes” per year.
The annual consumption of fish per capita in Senegal “is 29 kg, or eight times the average consumption in Mauritania,” specifies the PRCM (Regional Partnership for the Conservation of the Coastal and Marine Zone in West Africa).
Fish represented “27% of Mauritanian exports in the first quarter of 2024”, underlines the National Agency for Statistics and Demographic and Economic Analysis of Mauritania (ANSADE)
