Madar (Nouakchott) - The port authorities of the Bay of Cadiz, the Bay of Algeciras, Seville and Huelva, in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia, have called for an urgent solution to guarantee continued fishing in Mauritanian waters, after the fisheries protocol between the European Union and Mauritania expired at midnight on Saturday, 14 November 2026, the daily "Diario de Cadiz" reported on Sunday.
According to sector estimates relayed by the port authorities, the absence of an agreement could cause losses of 40 to 50 million euros, with knock-on effects well beyond the fishing fleet, on marketing, processing, distribution, transport, port services and ancillary industry.
The four ports called for stepped-up diplomatic and negotiating efforts to reach a new agreement or, failing that, a "transitional solution" allowing activity to continue while talks go on, after months of contacts that produced no solution and left the negotiations at a "standstill", according to the same source.
Their position followed a meeting this week between their representatives, Andalusia's regional minister for agriculture, fisheries, water and rural development, Ramon Fernandez-Pacheco, and fishing sector representatives, at which they voiced concern over the economic and social consequences of a halt in activity.
According to the newspaper, activity at the Port of Cadiz fish market will be halved until the situation returns to normal, while purse-seine companies in Barbate and processing firms fear that the stoppage could force them to move to other nearby ports.
The port authorities recalled that the protocol, in force since November 2021, allowed vessels from ten EU member states to fish in Mauritanian waters, and that its expiry affects 25 Andalusian vessels out of the 60 European vessels that were authorised to operate in these fishing grounds.
For his part, Fernandez-Pacheco on Sunday regretted that no agreement had been reached before the protocol expired and urged the Spanish government to "deploy all its diplomatic tools" to soften positions and return to a new agreement, Europa Press reported.
The Andalusian official described the Mauritanian fishing grounds as "fundamental for the work of thousands of families" in the provinces of Huelva, Cadiz and Seville, calling the end of the agreement "very bad news", and urged the European institutions and the Spanish ministry to "sit down and negotiate with Mauritania and reach an agreement as soon as possible".
