Fisheries of Mauritania, 1971

FAO estimates that the potential yield of marine fish between the Strait of Gibraltar and Dakar, Senegal, is more than 3 million metric tons. Of these, 2.5 million tons are pelagic species and at least 600,000 tons are bottom species. These figures do not include the octopus-squid group, tunas, or shellfish. Mauritania's share of the potential yield is not precisely known, but it has a broad shelf area subject to annual upwelling which enriches the waters and provides excellent environmental conditions for bountiful marine resources.Its continental shelf is 30 to 90 miles wide and 120 miles long between Caps Blanc and Timiris and from 20 to 40 miles wide from Cap Timiris to its southern boundary, the Senegal River. Until Mauritania started to develop its own commercial fishery within the last decade, it had only a fresh-water fishery along the Senegal and Gorgol Rivers and a small marine artisanal fishery. Construction of a fishing port at Nouadhibou, started in 1965, was completed in 1968. All of this activity is taking place in a seaport at the northern extremity of Mauritania's 350-mile coastline. New plant capacity for all types of fish processing (freezing, drying, canning, and fishmeal reduction) was based on more than 200,000 tons of production per year. 1973 International Activities Staff NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) Library Public Domain 1861