Fishing by tamounant, a dhow-like wooden boat with a lanteen sail, in Banc d'Arguin National Park, where motorized fishing boats are prohibited. The waters here are only a few meters deep, and an important nursery and breeding area for many of the species that inhabit Mauritanian coastal waters, especially sharks and rays. The area is also an important winter resting spot for migratory birds. Although the fishing in many of the villages is monitored by IMROP (the Mauritanian fisheries dept, there appeared to be rampant illegal fishing, or at least this was the reason that multiple boat captains gave for not letting me accompany them.
Only 114 tamunant boats are permitted to fish in the Banc d'Arguin, and the net size is kept to a minimum of a 60mm opening, but the number of nets is not controlled. Fishing for sharks and rays is illegal, but fishermen are allowed to keep those varieties if found dead in the net. The fishing boat we went with landed many sharks and rays, including the (apparently rare) guitarfish, and they were brought on deck quite alive and the sharks were clubbed to death, and the rays were left to die in the bottom of the boat.
