The Courier

Boats off the Mauritian coast.

© EU Delegation Mauritania

In December 2007, the European Commission revoked the agreement between the EU and Mauritania, as “EU ship owners were not making full use of the opportunities for fishing”. A series of technical meetings have since been planned to ensure the new agreement is, in the words of the Commission, “more in line with the size of the EU fishing fleet in Mauritanian waters and better meets Mauritania’s requirements with regard to the development of its national fishing sector”. On 19 February this year, EU fisheries ministers gave their backing to the Commission to determine “fishing opportunities for EU vessels in such a way as to ensure a balance between these quotas and the financial reimbursement to Mauritania”. In short, this meant reviewing the EU’s financial contribution to allow its fleets to fish in Mauritanian waters. The EU Council of Ministers also indicated that the two parties should engage in “consultation to ensure the adoption of measures aimed at sustainable management of Mauritanian marine resources, taking into account the best scientific opinion available in particular over the state of fish stocks”. The initial Fishing Partnership Agreement (FPA) between the EU and Mauritania was drawn up in 1987. The latest agreement was concluded for the period 2006-2012. The protocol establishing fishing opportunities and financial reimbursement was signed for a period of two years and entered into force on 1 August 2006. At the end of the first year of this agreement, the European Commission indicated that the fishing opportunities granted to the Member States were insufficient.

The EU-Mauritania Fishing Partnership Agreement is designed to set an example. It is the most important fishing agreement that the European Union has ever concluded with a third country – not least in financial terms, as the EU’s contribution is €86 million a year, or around a third of Mauritania’s national income. In return, about 200 vessels from Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Latvia currently have the right to fish in Mauritanian waters. But the FPA should also set a precedent in attempts to control the key issue of the overexploitation of resources (the present agreement provides the right to fish for crustaceans, prawns, hake and other demersal species, as well as small pelagic species, tuna and cephalopods).

The spectrum of overexploitation

In December 2007, 20 fishing boats from the Spanish Association of Cephalopod Fishing (ANACEF), fishing cephalopods under the current EU-Mauritania agreement, decided to stop their operations owing to losses. According to the association, this was because of inappropriate technical measures written into the agreement. The ANACEF specifically highlighted the minimum size set for catches of cephalopods (500g), which it considers too high and says forced it to fish outside the six-mile limit. It has now been involved in a battle with the Mauritanian authorities for several months to obtain the right to fish for sizes that are prohibited commercially. The Spanish also complain that they have been prevented access to young cephalopods unless they pay heavy compensation. According to ANACEF, the Spanish boats returning home will mean the direct loss of 340 jobs and a further 1,600 indirect job losses. Furthermore, supplies will be disrupted to the Spanish, Italian and Japanese markets that will be deprived of the seven tonnes of cephalopods usually brought back from Mauritania by these boats (a tonne of octopus can fetch US$7,000-8,000). However, mindful of the concern of over-fishing, the scientific committee of the Mauritanian Ocean and Fisheries Research Institute (IMROP) launched a campaign several months ago designed to protect the regeneration of cephalopods.

Currently, all the fleets working in Mauritanian waters, both local and foreign, are continually recording losses due to the overexploitation of cephalopods. Therefore the main aim of the agreement, according to the Belgian Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), should be to help Mauritania adjust its fishing capacity to the resources available, maintaining the principle that the European fleets can only have access to the surplus resources that cannot be fished locally. The centre also says that it is vital for the EU to continue its efforts to help Mauritania establish a sustainable development policy for the fishery sector.

The importance of cephalopods

Cephalopods, and octopus in particular, are one of Mauritania’s major fishing resources. The Mauritanian Fish Marketing Company (SMCP), which sells all of the frozen demersal species and cephalopods brought in by the national fleet, exported 40,000 tonnes of fish worth almost €119M in 2004. Octopus, which alone accounts for 51.2 per cent of this total export tonnage (with a value of almost €98M), makes up 82 per cent of SMCP’s turnover. Moreover, the Mauritanian octopus is equally important for the European fishing industry.

In 2004, the European cephalopod trawlers comprised 33 per cent of the turnover generated within the framework of the fishing agreement (compared to 38 per cent for small pelagic species and 16% for prawn trawlers).

The arrival of the Chinese

Since the beginning of the 1990s when fishing for octopus began its sharp growth, there has also been a huge influx of Chinese vessels into the local fleet as part of its modernisation programme, despite the warnings of CNROP and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) about fish stocks being unable to withstand such pressure. The arrival of the EU cephalopod trawlers between 1994 and 1996 further accelerated the depletion of stocks and the subsequent decline in landings. Béatrice Gorez, spokesperson for CAPE, a non-governmental organisation campaigning for fair fishing agreements, explained that in 2006 the 125 vessels in the national fleet were mainly of Chinese origin.

In 2006, IMROP, which every four years brings together the leading international experts on Mauritanian fishing, estimated a 31 per cent excess the fishing of octopus, which means a decrease in production of 20 per cent . To achieve the goal of maximising income established by the Mauritanian policy, it would be necessary to reduce the fishing effort by 40% to return it to the maximum economic level.

According to CAPE, 43 licences for fishing octopus are assigned to European trawlers under the access provided by the current Mauritania-EU agreement. Compared with the previous agreement, the most recent figures available show that only 46 of the 55 licences provided for by the 2001–2006 agreement were used during the first quarter of 2005 due to a lack of resources. According to CAPE, the 46 licences are set to fall to 43, representing a decrease of 6.5 per cent . It is difficult to understand how this modest decline adds up to the fall of 30 per cent  in the European fishing effort, which is what has been officially announced.

New agreement with Côte d’Ivoire

On 20 February 2008, the EU Council of Ministers gave the go-ahead for a new fishing partnership with Côte d’Ivoire. This agreement, considerably less sizeable than that between the EU and Mauritania, stipulates an annual financial contribution from the EU of €455,000. The fishing quotas established by this agreement, for the period from 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2013 (with retroactive effect), will be divided between the Member States as follows:
- 25 seiners: Spain (15 vessels) and France (10 vessels);
- 15 surface long liners: Spain (10 vessels) and Portugal (5 vessels).

The financial contribution made by the EU corresponds to a reference tonnage of 7,000 tonnes per year and an annual sum of €140,000 to assist with the implementation of the Ivorian government’s fishing policy. The new agreement aims to replace the one concluded in 1990 on fishing off Côte d’Ivoire. The agreement also contains a revision clause which allows for amendments to the agreement after three years if necessary.

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