Casablanca – Morocco and Mauritania signed the first executive program in the field of marine fisheries and aquaculture for the years 2023 and 2024, on September 30 in Nouakchott.
The executive program aims to improve the two countries’ existing relations through the creation and execution of programs and cooperative projects in the fields of marine training, scientific and technological research, aquaculture, and fisheries development.
The agreement also attempts to enhance processing industries and fishery products, fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, maritime salvage, and combat pollution.
This is in addition to strengthening the cooperation framework among professionals, notably in the private sector, through the exchange of experiences and best practices in this field.
Morocco’s Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Sadiki and his Mauritanian counterpart Mohamed Abidine Mayif signed the agreement on the sidelines of the 1st session of the joint Moroccan-Mauritanian commission on fisheries and aquaculture.
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On this occasion, an agreement was signed between the National Institute of Fisheries Research (INRH) and the Mauritanian Institute of Oceanographic Research and Fisheries to promote bilateral cooperation in the field of fisheries research.
This inaugural meeting of the two countries’ joint sectoral commission is part of the successful execution of the provisions of the cooperation agreement in the field of marine fisheries and aquaculture agreed in Rabat on March 11, 2022, which repealed and replaced the agreement of 2000.
The work of this joint Moroccan-Mauritanian commission comes a week after the visit of the Mauritanian Minister of Fisheries to Algiers.
The visit was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding on September 22 relating primarily to the granting of fishing quotas to Algerian trawlers in Mauritania’s territorial waters.
