Mauritania’s new fishing strategy demands that all operating fishermen be the country’s nationals, and that landings of fish caught in Mauritanian waters are made to the country’s ports, ABC Spain reported.
The Mauritanian minister for fisheries and the marine economy, Nany Uld Chruga, rejected a request from Senegal to smooth the implementation of its new fishing strategy, saying that the new plan will be “rigorously implemented”.
Currently almost all those working in the country’s artisanal fisheries sector are Senegalese, and have been suspended since the entry into force of the new legislation.
The Mauritanian minister emphasized that initially this strategy had to be applied from January 2016, but the authorities offered a period of 13 months for overseas operators to adapt to the new regulation.
In 2015, Mauritania granted 400 artisanal fishing licenses to Dakar in its national waters, but did not renew those authorizations for 2017.
In January, three Senegalese fishermen were injured by gunfire from Mauritanian coastguard officers against Senegalese fishermen who were fishing illegally in Mauritanian waters.