Fishing agreement signed

Senegal and Mauritania signed on Monday a cooperation agreement that covers fisheries research and training as well as the exploitation of their fish resources, news agencies reported. The agreement was signed by Senegalese Fisheries Minister Cheikh Sadibou Fall, and his Mauritanian counterpart, Ahmed Ould Ahmedou, at the end of talks in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott. It confirms the provisions of a draft they signed on 25 February 2001, PANA reported on Wednesday. The agreement, the news agency reported, stipulates that "fishermen established temporarily or definitively in one of the two countries and operating in the waters within the jurisdiction of that country, are allowed carry out their activities in the same conditions as the nationals". The ministers underscored the need "to preserve mutually advantageous interests" and endorsed the terms of February's draft agreement. Under the agreement, each country accepted to grant permits to a certain number of ships to enable them operate within its territorial waters each year, PANA said. The pact also envisages bilateral cooperation in training and research on fisheries activities. Fishermen from one country have often been arrested and detained for fishing in the waters of the other.