it is "fully" implemented, including a "provisional implementation clause" that allows its launch. Consequently, he estimated that fifty vessels from Spain will be allowed to have access to the Mauritanian fishing ground in the first half of December, in "about ten or fifteen days."
As part of the agreement, Community vessels will be allowed to fish 281,500 tonnes per year in return for an annual compensation of EUR 55 million a year.
This agreement benefits the fishing fleets of Andalusia, Canary Islands and Galicia.
To Spain, the new protocol represents some improvement over the previous one. It will benefit the shellfish fleet, for example, because it has recovered one of the two fishing areas that had been closed in the previous agreement. In addition, given the good status of the shellfish resources, both parties have decided to eliminate biological stoppages for this fishing mode, which will allow the fleet to fish all year round. And with regard to tuna fishing, the new protocol allows the fleet of highly migratory species to return to one of the best fishing grounds in the Atlantic. The purse seine and longline fleets will be able to operate under similar conditions to those of other agreements for highly migratory species, after standardizing control measures and the access in this new protocol with those from the other tuna agreements. |
