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    Financial Times FT.com Search FT.com All times are London time Search News in the FT.com site Search Quotes in the FT.com site COLUMNISTS Global Village Breadcrumb trail navigation:   >     >     >   Services & Mauritania bemoans nautical graveyard By Matthew Green in Nouadhibou Published: October 7 2008 03:05 | Last updated: October 7 2008 03:05 A dust-blown town of half-built houses perched at the end of a peninsula of eerie rock formations on the Moroccan border, Nouadhibou boasts little to hint at the vast wealth trawled up since the European Union began negotiating fishing deals with Mauritania in 1987. Dunes tumbling into the Atlantic provide a spectacular backdrop, but the wrecked hulks of more than 100 ships give the bay the feel of a nautical graveyard. As a teenager growing up on Mauritanias desert coast, Hassan Mohammed would while away afternoons flicking a line into the Atlantic surf, reeling in fish so easily it seemed they were queuing up to be caught. Twenty years later, with his fishing business based on two dugout canoes struggling to survive, he blames a flotilla of European, Russian and Chinese trawlers for sucking the life out of the sea. If it continues like this, therell be nothing left, he says. We cant sell water. The EU, facing criticism from campaigners seeking fairer trade deals, has signed up to a reformed four-year fishing agreement with Mauritania. It will pay ¬300m ($405m, £233m) over four years for a reduced catch set at 250,000 tonnes a year. But it threatened to suspend the deal the EUs biggest fisheries agreement after a in August in which Mauritanias first freely elected president was overthrown. That threat, eventually dropped, increased local resentment. Our leaders arent Saddam Hussein or [Osama] Bin Laden, said Ahmed Ould Yahya, a partner in a fishing company in Nouadhibou. Sanctions dont affect the leaders, but they affect the population. Just as African communities have long accused foreign companies of reaping the bulk of the income from oil, timber and gold, Mauritanias coastal people feel cheated of the profits to be had from the rich catches of fish, shrimp and octopus in west Africas fishing grounds. Nouadhibou has developed one thriving export business. Thousands of illegal immigrants struggle through the desert before seeking a passage to Spains Canary Islands, two days away by boat. Last year an estimated 31,000 west Africans took to sea. Some 6,000 died or are missing, according to one estimate cited by the United Nations. Locals say Nouadhibou needs more fish processing industries to generate bigger profits and provide the jobs needed to stem the human tide. If there was work, there would be no immigration, says Yahya Ould Ndiaye, one of the founders of a local charity that warns would-be migrants of the dangers. How many years have Europeans been fishing in Mauritania? Where is the money? Campaigners say the latest EU fishing deal is an improvement, but does not provide enough safeguards. The problem with the new agreement is that it still allows EU vessels to take too much of the fish and octopus that local fishermen need, said Béatrice Gorez, of the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements in Brussels. As disillusionment with the Europeans runs high, the country is open to new partners. Before the coup, the government signed a deal with China for a $300m project to extend the Friendship Port built by the Chinese in the early 1980s in Nouackchott, the capital. Investors from Dubai have also been looking at projects to expand the pier and invest in a container terminal and refrigeration facilities. Abasse Boughourbal, who owns one of the few fish processing factories in Nouadhibou, speaking over a meal of giant prawns, says: The danger for the Europeans is that theyll push us into the arms of the Chinese. The Financial Times Limited 2008 EDITORS CHOICE - Sep-30 - Aug-18 - Aug-11 - Aug-04 - Jul-29 - Jul-22 More in this section Regional pages Related Services * Minimum delay 15 minutes All times are London time Partner sites: © Copyright 2008. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.